ODE FOR THE HIGH-KNOWERS.

Half of Mankind’s woe comes from the fact that, several thousand years ago, somewhere in the Middle East, peoples through their language conceived spirituality OR MYSTICISM….

-Not as a quest for meaning, hope or liberation with the concepts that go with it (distinction opposition or difference between matter and spirit, ethics, personal discipline, philanthropy, life after life, meditation, quest for the grail, practices...).

-But as a gigantic and protean law (DIN) that should govern the daily life of men with all that it implies.

Obligations or prohibitions that everyone must respect day and night.

Violations or contraventions of this multitude of prohibitions when they are not followed literally.

Judgments when one or more of these laws are violated.

Convictions for the guilty.

Dismissals or acquittals for the innocent. CALLED RIGHTEOUS PERSONS.

THIS CONFUSION BETWEEN THE NUMINOUS AND THE RELIGIOUS, THEN BETWEEN THE SACREDNESS AND THE SECULAR , MAKES OUR LIFE A MISERY FOR 4000 YEARS VIA ISRAEL AND ESPECIALLY THE NEW ISRAEL THAT CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM WANT TO BE.

The principle of our Ollotouta was given us, long time ago already, by our master to all in the domain; the great Gaelic bard, founder of the modern Free-thought, who is usually evoked under the anglicized name of John Toland. There cannot be, by definition, things contrary to Reason in Holy Scriptures really emanating from the divine one.

If there are, then it is, either error, or lies!

Either there is no mystery, or then it is in any way a divine revelation!

There is no happy medium...

We do not admit other orthodoxy that only the one of Truth because, wherever it can be in the world, must also stand, we are completely convinced of it, God's Church, and not that one of such or such a human faction … We are consequently for showing no mercy to the error on any pretext that can be, each time we will have the possibility or occasion to expound it in its true colors.

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1696. Christianity not mysterious.

1702. Vindicius Liberus. Response of John Toland to the detractors of his "Christianity not mysterious."

1704. Letters to Serena containing the origin of idolatry and reasons of heathenism, the history of the soul's immortality doctrine among the heathens, etc. (Version Baron d’Holbach, a German philosopher).

1705. The true Socinianism * as an example of fair debate on matters of theology *.To which is prefixed Indifference in disputes, recommended by a pantheist to an orthodox friend.

1709. Adeisdaemon or the man without superstition. Jewish origins.

1712. Letter against popery, and particularly against admitting the authority of the Fathers or Councils in religious controversies, by Sophia Charlotte of Prussia.

1714. Defense of the Jews, victims of the anti-Semite prejudices, and a plea for their naturalization.

1718. The destiny of Rome, of the popes, and the famous prophecy of St Malachy, archbishop of Armagh, in the thirteenth century.

Nazarenus or the Jewish, gentile, and Mahometan Christianity (version Baron d’Holbach), containing:

I. The history of the ancient gospel of Barnabas, and the modern apocryphal gospel of the Mahometans, attributed to the same apostle.

II. The original plan of Christianity occasionally explained in the history of the Nazarenes, solving at the same time various controversies about this divine (but so highly perverted) institution.

III. The relation of an Irish manuscript of the four gospels as likewise a summary of the ancient Irish Christianity and what the realty of the keldees (an order half-lay, half-religious) was, against the last two bishops of Worcester.

1720. Pantheisticon, sive formula celebrandae sodalitatis socraticae.

Tetradymus.

I. Hodegus. The pillar of cloud and fire that guided the Israelites in the wilderness was not miraculous but, as faithfully related in Exodus, a practice equally known by other nations, and in those countries, not only useful, but even necessary.

Il. Clidophorus.

III. Hypatia or the history of the most beautiful, most virtuous, and most accomplished lady, who was stoned to death by the clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, the emulation and even the cruelty, of Archbishop Cyril, commonly, but very undeservedly, styled Saint Cyril.

1726. Critical history of the Celtic religion, containing an account of the druids, or the priests and judges, of the vates, or the diviners and physicians, and finally of the bards, or the poets; of the ancient Britons, Irish or Scots. In plus with the story of Abaris the Hyperborean, priest of the sun.

A specimen of the Armorican language (Breton, Irish, Latin, dictionary).

1726. An account of Jordano Bruno's book, about the infinity of the universe and the innumerable worlds, translated from the Italian editing.

1751. The Pantheisticon or the form of celebrating the Socratic-society. London S. Paterson. Translation of the book published in 1720.

"Druidism" is an independent review (independent of any religious or political association) and which has only one purpose: theoretical or fundamental research about what is neo-paganism. The double question, to which this review of theoretical studies tries to answer, could be summarized as follows:

"What could be or what should be a current neo-druidism, modern and contemporary?”

"Druidism" is a neo-pagan review, strictly neo-pagan, and heir to all genuine (that is to say non-Christian) movements which have succeeded one another for 2000 years, the indirect heir, but the heir, nevertheless!

Regarding our reference tradition or our intellectual connection, let us underline that if the "poets" of Domnall mac Muirchertach Ua Néill still had imbas forosnai, teimn laegda and dichetal do chennaib 1) in their repertory (cf. the conclusion of the tale of the plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach, of Urard Mac Coise, a poet who died in the 10th century), they may have been Christians for several generations. It is true that these practices (imbas forosnai, teimn ...) were formally forbidden by the Church, but who knows, there may have been accommodations similar to those of astrologers or alchemists in the Middle Ages.

Anyway our "Druidism" is also a will; the will to get closer, at the maximum, to ancient druidism, such as it was (scientifically speaking). The will also to modernize this druidism, a total return to ancient druidism being excluded (it would be anyway impossible).

Examples of modernization of this pagan druidism.

— Giving up to lay associations of the cultural side (medicine, poetry, mathematics, etc.). Principle of separation of Church and State.

— Specialization on the contrary, in Celtic, or pagan in general, spirituality history of religion, philosophy and metapsychics (known today as parapsychology).

— Use in some cases of the current vocabulary (Church, religion, baptism, and so on).

A golden mean, of course, is to be found between a total return to ancient druidism (fundamentalism) and a too revolutionary radical modernization (no longer sagum).

The Celtic PAA (pantheistic agnostic atheist) having agreed to sign jointly this small library *, of which he is only the collector, druid Hesunertus (Peter DeLaCrau), does not consider himself as the author of this collective work. But as the spokesperson for the team which composed it. For other sources of this essay on druidism, see the thanks in the bibliography.

* Socinians, since that's how they were named later, wished more than all to restore the true Christianity that teaches the Bible. They considered that the Reformation had made disappear only a part of corruption and formalism, present in the Churches, while leaving intact the bad substance: non-biblical teachings (that is very questionable in fact).

** This little camminus is nevertheless important for young people ... from 7 to 77 years old! Mantalon siron esi.

1) Do ratath tra do Mael Milscothach iartain cech ni dobrethaigsid suide sin etir ecnaide 7 fileda 7 brithemna la taeb ogaisic a crech 7 is amlaidsin ro ordaigset do tabairt a cach ollamain ina einech 7 ina sa[ru]gad acht cotissad de imus forosnad [di]chetal do chollaib cend 7 tenm laida .i. comenclainn fri rig Temrach do acht co ti de intreide sin FINIT.

PROLOG.

“Drasidae (sic) memorant re vera fuisse populi partem indigenam, sed alios quoque ab insulis extimis confluxisse et tractibus transrenanis, crebritate bellorum et adluvione fervidi maris sedibus suis expulsos” (Timagenes, quoted by Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum Libri or Res Gestae “Roman History,” book XV, chapter IX, 4).

“The druids [Latin drasidae] affirm that a portion of the people was really indigenous to the soil, but that other inhabitants poured in from very remote islands on the coast and from the districts across the Rhine, having been driven from their former abodes by frequent wars, and sometimes by a tidal wave” [literally: by the flood of a raging sea].

“The forest of the Tartessians, in which it is said that the Titans waged war against the gods, the Cynetes inhabited, whose most ancient king Gargorix, was the first to collect honey. This prince, having a grandson born to him, the offspring of an intrigue on the part of his daughter, tried various means, through shame for her non-chastity, to have the child put to death; but he, being preserved by some good fortune, through all calamities, came at last to the throne,

from a compassionate feeling for the many perils that he had undergone. First of all, he ordered him to be exposed, that he might be starved, and, when he sent some days after to look for his body, he was found nursed by the milk of various wild beasts. When he was brought home, he caused him to be thrown down in a narrow road, along which herds of cattle used to pass; being so cruel that he would rather have his grandchild trampled to pieces than dispatched by an easy death. As he was unhurt also in this case, and required no food, he threw him to hungry dogs, that had been exasperated by want of food for several days, and afterwards to swine, but as he was not only uninjured, but even fed with the teats of some of the swine, he ordered him at last to be cast into the sea. On this occasion, as if, by the manifest interposition of some deity, he had been carried, amid the raging tide, and flux and reflux of the waters, not on the billows but in a vessel, he was put on shore by the subsiding ocean; and, not long after, a hind came up, and offered the child her teats. By constantly following this nurse, the boy acquired extraordinary swiftness of foot, and long ranged the mountains and woods among herds of deer, with fleetness not inferior to theirs. At last, being caught in a snare, he was presented to the king; and then, from the similitude of his features, and certain marks which had been burnt on his body in his infancy, he was recognized as his grandson. Afterwards, from admiration at his escapes from so many misfortunes and perils, he was appointed by his grandfather to succeed him on the throne. The name given him was Habis; and, as soon as he became king, he gave such proofs of greatness that he seemed not to have been delivered in vain, through the power of the gods, from so many exposures to death. He united the barbarous people by laws; he was the first that taught them to break oxen for the plow and to raise corn from tillage; and he obliged them, instead of food procured from the wilds, to adopt a better diet, perhaps through a dislike of what he had eaten in his childhood.

...By him the people were interdicted from servile duties, and the commonalty was divided among seven cities. After Habis was dead, the sovereignty was retained for many generations by his successors” (Justin, epitome or summary of the philippic and universal histories by Trogue Pompey or Pompeius Trogus, book XLIV chapter IV).

“The Celts who dwell along the ocean venerate the Dioscori above any of the gods, since they have a tradition handed down from ancient times that these gods appeared in their country coming from the ocean. The country which skirts the ocean does not bear a few names which are derived from the Argonauts and the Dioscori…” (Timaeus, Greek historian quoted by Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library. Book IV, chapter LVI).

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Some great French specialists as C. - J. Guyonvarc'h, deny any relationship between druidism and shamanism; but if we agree to take into account its shamanic origins, druidism is the oldest religions in

the world. The word (druidism) to indicate the religion of Celts is, of course, of relatively recent origin. The Irish Middle Ages used the word druidecht we could more or less translate by “druidry”. The fact is that there was in reality no specific word and what we call druidism today was for example designated by periphrases, of which at least one is attested in the writing of Caesar. “They discuss and impart to the youth many elements respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods” (Caesar B.G. Book VI, chapter XIV).

But look out. To speak about druidism in the singular (eternal druidism, etc.) is an intellectual swindle. There was never ONE druidism or a UNIFIED druidry, there was only druidism in the plural, variable according to places, times, even according to social classes or communities. There was therefore never ONE druidism, but SOME DRUIDIC SCHOOLS. Various Schools of thought, as close or as different between them than the Catholics, the Reformist Churches or the Orthodoxes, inside the Christian framework; or Shias and Sunnis inside the Muslim framework, or Vishnuists and Shivaists inside the Hindu framework.

Only broad outlines make it possible to know if one is inside or outside (druidic) framework.

Each time we speak about druidism in the singular, we will therefore designate simply by that the broad outlines, or the more or less common main tendencies, to all places and druidic times. And especially not a druidism claiming to be superior compared to other forms of piety, one of the theses common to all these Druidic Schools being precisely that one of the various levels of truth, EACH ONE HAVING ITS NECESSITY OR ITS INTEREST.

The question of the sources now.

As soon as the field of druidism is approached, the seeker is inevitably confronted with the problem of the references.

Two types of sources deliver us general information. First of all, the contemporaries, among whom we can quote, as examples: Diodorus of Sicily (Historical Library), Strabo (Geography), Pomponius Mela (De Chorographia), Lucan (Pharsalia), Pliny the Elder (Natural History), and especially Julius Caesar, with his famous commentaries. These accounts often give a negative image of the Celtic peoples, but we can extract from them many very interesting elements.

The second source is much later since it is the registration by the clerics of the Middle Ages, of the oral traditions, in Ireland. This literature, whose writing down ranges from the 8th century to the 16th century, opportunely comes to confirm or supplement the results of the studies of ancient sources.

It transcribes the myths as well as the epics of Celtic Ireland, handed over orally from generation to generation. The collectors/transcribers have decked all these myths out in a Christian veneer, under which the study can more or less discover the original Celtic substrate. All the work of the researcher in druidism therefore consists in releasing the initial matter of Celtic mythology, while remaining in the Indo-European context. These various texts of medieval Irish literature can be gathered in five main categories.

- The mythological cycle which also includes the legends on the peopling of the island (the legends about Etanna or Tochmarc Etaine, the death of the children of Tuireann, the battle of the mounds plain, the Lebor Gabala Erenn, or the Book of the Taking of our beloved Ireland …

- The heroic cycle (also known as the Red Branch or Ulster cycle) whose principal hero is the invincible CúChulainn. It is in this cycle that we must classify the cattle raid of Cooley as well as the touching legend of Deirdre…

- The Fenian cycle (also known as the Ossianic cycle or Leinster cycle), whose principal heroes are Finn Mac Cumaill, his son Ossian and his grandson Oscar.

- The historical cycle (or cycles of kings).

- The various adventures voyages or aislingi (visions). Conle, Bran son of Febal, Cormac, St Brendan, Tundale, the Purgatory of St Patrick, the aisling or vision of Adamnan, the others imrama or echtra. But look out, only echtra remained of really pagan spirit, imrama,as for them, were more largely Christianized.

Cathbad drúi búi oc tabairt da daltaib fri hEmain anairtúaith. Cét fer n-déinmech dó oc foglaim druídechta úad. Is é lín doninchoisced Cathbad. Ocht n-dalta do aes in dána druidechta na farad (Tain Bo Cualnge).

Catubatuos the druid was teaching his pupils, in the North-East of Emain. Hundred thoughtless men were at his place, learning druidism. Such was the number of those Catubatuos taught. Eight of those [only] were capable of druidic science (Cattle raid of Cooley).

Question. Which is of the 72 languages he had therefore studied that which was diffused in first by Fénius Farsaid?

Answer. It is not difficult. The Gaelic language… because of all those which were brought back by his school, it was that which he preferred, that of which he heard about since his childhood in the country of Scythians…

Question. Why can we say about Gaelic it is a chosen language?

Answer. It is not difficult! Because it was selected among all the languages, and because for any incomprehensible sound, existing in the other languages, a meaning was found in Gaelic, hence its limpidity as well as its clearness.

LIFE AND DEATH OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND UNHAPPY ETANNA.

Followed by few other stories (scela) according to Irish apocryphal manuscripts.

Texts collected corrected and annotated by PETER DELACRAU.

INTRODUCTION.

REMINDER ABOUT REINCARNATION (counter-lay No. 1).

Nothing proves that reincarnation in this world was a central dogma of druidic religion.

The so often quoted text by Lucan speaks only about reincarnation ..... in another world. In other words, soul and mind of the deceased go in another world but still in narrow osmosis with a body which can be

-The same as before

-The same as before but regenerated, that is to say renovated and healed from all his infirmities or diseases.

-The same as before but regenerated even improved (more beautiful more resistant, in a way ideal).

-The same as before and all that but, in addition, with a little something indefinable that the followers of Mazdean religion call xvarnah, Christian religion “glory” (Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos)

D’Arbois de Jubainville is right to point out that the first Greek authors mistook about the druidic design of the almost immortality of souls or minds.

The first learned Greek who studied the manners of the Celts believed, about this point, to recognize among them a Greek doctrine, the metempsychosis of Pythagoras. According to Pythagoras indeed, souls after death are judged, and, when they are recognized unworthy to come back to heaven, they must be embodied again in this world, either in the body of a man, or in that of an animal, according to their moral state or their degree of perfection. Pythagoras, they said, claimed to remember having lived four lives in this world, and on these four lives there were three of them in which he had been a historical character. He would have lived for the fifth time, when, in the sixth century before our era, he founded the philosophy known as of his name, Pythagorean.

Poseidonius, who visited Celtica about the year 100 before our era, therefore thought to find there the doctrines of Pythagoras. Alexander Polyhistor, a contemporary of Sylla who died in the year 78 before our era, had, perhaps, the book by Posidonius under his eyes while putting Galatians among the followers of Pythagoras.

Diodorus of Sicily, in his Library written in Greek language, about the year 40 before our era, also repeats, according to Posidonius, this flattering assumption for the self-esteem of the Greeks: “The Celts,” he says, “ have no regard for their lives; for the belief of Pythagoras prevails among them that the souls are immortal and that after a prescribed number of years they commence upon a new life, the soul entering into another body.”

We have, probably there, a shortened reproduction of a passage from the book by Poseidonius.

Caesar, a few years before, had given, of the text by Posidonius, a Latin adaptation, which ascribed to druids the honor to have introduced among Celts the belief in the immortality of souls.

“The druids wish,” he says, “to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets: that souls or spirits do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another; and they think that men by this tenet are in a great degree excited to valor, the fear of death being disregarded.”

Timagenes, who wrote in Rome, under Augustus, a little before Livy, also links with Pythagoras the druidic doctrines of the almost immortality of souls. The same mistake is found, under Tiberius, in Valerius Maximus.

But the teaching of druids in reality differed very appreciably from that of Pythagoras; it was not in this world, it was in another world that the souls of the dead found , according to them, a new body and a second life. Under Claudius, around the year 44, Pomponius Mela wrote in his Chorographia: “ One of the precepts they teach, he says —obviously to make them better for war—has leaked into common knowledge, namely, that souls/minds [Latin animas] are immortal and that there exists another life at the Manes.”

“At the manes” is still not very clear expression. Some years later, under Nero, Lucan, died in the year 65, speaks more categorically. In the Pharsalia, while finishing the picture of an overcome Celtica, he speaks himself to druids: “ According to your masters, the shades of dead men seek not the quiet homes of Erebus or death's pale kingdoms but the same soul governs the limbs in another world and the death is only the middle of a long life.”

In another world, orbe alio, the dead live again. This second life is not exactly the one that Hesiodic theology ascribes to heroes in the Greek epic. Nothing similar among Celts. Future life is similar to this one. There does not exist in one more than in the other a supreme power punishing the villain and rewarding the virtuous man. The dead finds in the other world a double of his body and objects which were familiar to him.

For this reason his parents bury him with his weapons, with his completely harnessed war chariot, with the clients who must assist him in the fights of the other life, as they did in this one. Sometimes the parents of the dead foresaw that, in the combat of the other life, the help of the clients buried with him would not be enough to guarantee him victory, then most devoted made themselves killed at the edge of the grave, and they were joined together with him in the same grave to carry out to him the support of their weapons in the battles that the dead fight in their mysterious abode, where the sun sets down beyond the Ocean.

An attentive study of the various Irish legends on the hereafter shows us nevertheless that d’Arbois de Jubainville was coarsely mistaken for its nature a little too similar to that in our world, according to him.

The body of the deceased is, of course, that he had in this world, but in a way regenerated, transfigured, glorious Christian would say (cf. also the notion of xvarnah in Mazdaism, Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos).

That being said, these carefully phrased remarks having been done, let us come now to the stories of the adventures of the unhappy Etanna, that each one of our readers will interpret as it will please him, the atheists as a very beautiful story of love stronger than death; mystics as an allegory of the human soul torn apart between contradictory worlds, beliefs, or ties. It was besides obviously the point of view of Christian authors. Etanna symbolized for them Ireland converting to Christianity (it is obvious in the most recent versions of her legend the ones which stage St Patrick) but up to what point these authors made only to extend an already preexistent pagan interpretation in germ in all that (Etanna = the soul of the Country, the soul of the Nation, the soul of Ireland)? It is up to each one, to see.

Let us note that outside the framework of the symbolic interpretation or of the allegory (Etanna = the soul of Ireland) it seems that former druids admitted the real existence of collective souls, called teutates and called egregors by certain spiritualist groups today: in other words some psychic synergies.

N.B. They call synergy the phenomenon through which several factors or influences acting together (some souls/minds of human beings for example) create an effect greater than the sum of the expected effects if they had worked independently, or create an effect that each one of them could not have caused by acting separately.

In his study on the Crowd psychology Gustave Le Bon defines a crowd thus: “A gathering of individuals of whatever nationality, profession, or sex, and whatever be the chances that have brought them together” And he adds that when these individuals gather, "A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. The gathering has thus become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organized crowd, or if the term is considered preferable, a psychological crowd. It forms a single being and is subjected to the law of the mental unity of crowds .”

Hans Kelsen criticized this notion by maintaining that it was in this case a hypostasis of interindividual relations which borders on mythology since, because of the fact a soul without body is scientifically impossible, such an idea obligatorily results in imagining a collective body equivalent to the individual bodies, in which is placed the collective soul then.

But this is another matter we will reconsider in a forthcoming opuscule about the question.

Also let us point out, as we have had the opportunity to see it in our study of the legend of Hesus Cuchulainn, that Gaelic language,in order to finish complicating everything, had apparently two words to designate soul.

The word anim which comes from the old Celtic anamone but influenced by Latin anima

The old Celtic term menman to designate mind with the meaning of intellect or of memory, in short consciousness. Former druids at the same time seem to have distinguished but also confused them, in the same destiny after death. Some indications nevertheless made us think that for them menman ended up disappearing and being detached from anamone in the hereafter, anamone having a lifespan after the death of the body, much longer (until the end of the cycle in progress?)

PRELIMINARIES.

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 2.

Etain/Etanna is the allegorical or symbolic personification of the human soul/mind. And not at all of the sovereignty of a particular land , as opposed to what some people maintain. It is a very old pan-Celtic allegory or image, risen somewhere in Central Europe at the end of Neolithic times, but adapted or considerably distorted after its acclimatization in Ireland (note that we did not use the word “heresy”).

Always overcome, made a prisoner and captive, but still reappearing, and seeking herself from generation to generation, from people to another one, Etanna/Etain occurs in three series of different texts.

- The book of conquests (Lebar Na gabala Eireann). Particularly in the battle of the plain of the mounds or standing stones. Or more exactly in the preliminary story of the tragic death of the children of Taran/Torann/Tuireann (Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann).

- The disappearance of the sons of Doel Dermot (Loinges mhic nDuil Dermait).

- And lastly the Etain cycle itself.

As we could see it in our previous volume, the exile of the sons of Doel Dermott, in fact, a daughter of the “Ocean’s horses “(Riangabair) while tripling her (Etan, Etain, Eithne). However, by making her a daughter of the “Ocean’s horses“ Irish monks and their under-culture lowered the unhappy Etanna on the level matching the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if it is preferred, Epona; who is a sublimation of the many representations of the Earth-Mother, allowed by druids on the Continent. But, let us point it out once again, Etanna is in the beginning one of the symbols or allegories of the (Celtic of course)

soul/mind. Rather strangely some other manuscripts (that of the sick-bed of Cuchulainn for example) also makes Etanna a wife of Cuchulainn, since Eithne Inguba is for them another name of Aemer.

A piece of evidence if there is some of them that the myth really started to be no longer understood by the transcribers of these legends.

Our hero, the Hesus Cuchulainn, having therefore been, as we could see in the chapter of the Disappearance of the sons of Doel Dermottt (Loinges mhic nDuil Dermait), in more or less ongoing relationship with her, let each one of our readers therefore study attentively the following texts. And then announce to us what he thinks, because there is food for thoughts here.

The question is indeed important: are there yes or no relations between Etanna and the Hesus Cuchulainn and, if yes, which ones? It is up to each one to answer that in all honesty.

The poems or extracts of poems which we will review are anyway among most beautiful of all the Irish literature.

The starting point of the cycle of Etanna is the adultery of the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, also called in some texts Ivocatuos Ollater (Eochaid Ollathir), and of the fairy Viviane/Bo Vinda, wife of Borbo (Nechtan) and sister of Ulcomaros (Elcmar). Hence the birth of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. A conflict then will oppose Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, or Ivocatuos (Ollater Gurgunt). It will begin with a quarrel between Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and a representative of the race of the Gallic Fir Bolg (Tretis/Triath).

Although the racial distinction is mythical and fictitious, we understand rather badly that Medros/Midir also adopted children of Fir Bolg Gauls while discerning nevertheless in Tretis/Triath “pig “or rather “wild boar “ a royal and priestly denomination. Tretis/Triath disappears then from the narration and this first conflict, on the level of the candidate for kingship, is therefore solved for the almost exclusive benefit of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. But it makes immediately a second one emerge which is almost, in addition, a generation gap. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, to whom Medros/Midir has just revealed his

royal origin, claims from now on from his father, Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, a share, if not the wholeness, of his heritage.

There exists of this story a variant preserved in the very short story of the taking of the Sid (De Gabail in t-Sida) and in the poem by Cinaed ua hArtacain. Cinaed ua hArtacain, died in 975, was the great official poet of all the north of Ireland in his time.

The Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt gives up to his son his kingship for one day and one night, but he is trapped by legalism and he loses sovereignty definitively. The only variant of Cinaed ua hArtacain consists in making Medros/Midir claiming immediately kingship , on a definitive basis, for Mabon/Maponos/Oengus then, in front of the refusal of Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, in compromising with a temporary transfer. The legend conveys thus, rather awkwardly it is true, transcendence of time, by using the image of the druid-god-or-demon, replaced soon by a son generated then delivered in one night and one day.The possession of the sid being got for eternity, the temporal data is applicable to the birth circumstances, because in polar symbolism, one day and one night match the complete cycle of the year. One day, one year, or eternity, represent the same length for the son of the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, endowed with eternal youth. Perpetual time is well the son of Aiu (Eternity) as Being comes from Non-being and Finite from Infinity. The topic of the torn-off eye, in the case, is the quite comprehensible translation of the rancor of Ulcomaros (Elcmar) with regard to Medros (Midir), the latter having then fostered and protected the child born from the adultery of his wife or sister.

The text entitled “the dream of Oengus “is an isolated element of the cycle of Etanna. It belongs well to the mythological field and one would waste one’s time in seeking history in it, but it remained itself free from all Christian influence as for the content.

The thematic analysis of this set of texts points out the processes as well as the stages of the Christianization of a mythological story. Being well understood that the oldest version (the poem of Cinaed ua hArtacain) is already contaminated by this process. What removes nothing from its interest nor from its mythological richness. The story of

The Nurture of the Houses of the Two Milk pails constitutes most Christianized version. The evangelical competence of St Patrick was apparently not strong enough so that Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, and Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) convert, but it does not matter, most important, the Irish * soul, did so !

* Let us not be stupidly chauvinistic ! In fact, it is an allegory of the human soul in the case.

THE CYCLE OF ETANNA (TORCHMARC ETAINE).

LAST SPECIFICATIONS.

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 3.

The difficulty of comprehension of this legend is worsened by the complexity of the denominations and variants. They are perhaps not complex themselves, but each mythological (or sometimes epic) character has two, three or four names, if not more and this difficulty is added to the confusion due to Christianization. A piece of evidence: Etanna/Etain is, on the other hand, called Eqoredia (Echraide) in the wooing of Etain version I (Etain Echraide). With a difference nevertheless: her nature clearly watery (see the episode of the bath where she will lose her invisibility) and underground (it is, in this version, an inhabitant of the Sid, let us not forget it!) In this last series of texts, Irish monks made her a true novel character, a promised in marriage of Medros (Midir) or Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

The global outline of this wooing of Etanna (Tochmarc Etaine) is rather simple, but it is impossible nevertheless to give a satisfactory explanation of it, considering the many discordances of the manuscripts. Such as it is presented to us today, this story, of which we know five different versions, has no longer a unified framework, and it would be vain wanting to reconstruct its primitive drafting.

The assembly we propose is therefore an attempt of synthesis, broadest possible, but in so doing we nevertheless had to leave aside whole episodes, considering their incompatibility with the others. In order to clear up a little the things, here therefore the list of the other main characters of this drama.

- Mabon, P-Celtic Maponos: Oinogustios, called Mac Oc, Oengus, or Aengus.

- Medros: Midir in the Gaelic-written manuscripts.

- Belinos Barinthus: Manannan in the Gaelic-written manuscripts (Welsh Manawyddan).

- -Fairy Viviane : Bo Vinda. Vinda Damona or Boendoa on the Continent (inscription of Utrecht collected by Joshua Whatmough: Boruoboendoa). It is in fact a kind of lady of the lake.

- Borbo: Nechtan in the manuscripts written in Gaelic language.

- Suqellos Gurgunt: Dagda in manuscripts. Known also as Eochaid Ollathir, luocatuos Ollater in old Celtic.

APOCRYPHAL TEXT No. 1.

THE NURTURE OF THE HOUSE OF THE TWO MILK PAILS.

ALTROM TIGE DA MEDAR.

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 4.

The beginning of this story is a true heresy. By heresy we want to say an aberration, having nothing to do with ancient continental druidism, which is still the druidism of reference; because it mentions the Milesian invasion also known as that of the sons of Mile, which is a Medieval tall-story having no serious historical link with the original pan-Celtic myth. We could not better say, with this story of name change, that at the beginning it was not Ireland, but another land. And that Gaels have euhemerized in the wrong way or historicized the original myth by applying it to their island: by making therefore Ireland their promised land.

This confusion between Ireland and the earth , in a time which can be dated back at most only to the period of old Irish, as soonest to the seventh century, and probably quite after; was all the easier, let us repeat it, that in Gaelic language, Eriu, genitive Erenn, is Ireland; while iriu, genitive irenn, is the land . As for the fairies of the Matres type, called Banuta/Banva/Banba, Eriu/Iriu and Votala, (Irish Fotla) see what we wrote on this subject in our study of the Celtic mythology and Panth-eon or pleroma. These triads of mother goddess-or-demonesses were indeed very also known on the Continent.

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Below we give the adventures of the Toutai Devas (of the men of the great goddess Danu-bia): Their heroes and soldiers having been defeated by the Gallic Fir Bolg who lay hands on the territory, the noble one and mighty lord Belinos Barinthus Manannan was brought to settle their various problems and to chair their councils. His advice to the warriors was to scatter and quarter themselves under the hills and the plains of the country. The Toutai Devas made Dergos Boduos and Belinos Barinthus Manannan their rulers and Belinos Barinthus Manannan ordained the settlement of the noble [Toutai Devas] in their ethereal dwellings: Dergos Boduos in the sid of Buidb on the lake Derggert, haughty Medros in the fair-side sid of Truim, amiable Sithmall in the sid of Neannta of the shining form, Vindobarros in the bare-topped sid of Meadha, Tadiccos the great son of Noadatus/Nuada/Nodons/Lludd in the sid of Druim Dean, Abartacos son of Illathar in the sid of the fair summit , Fagartach in the most lovely sid of Finnabrach, Ilbreac in the sid of Aeda, near Assaroe, Lir son of Lugaid in the verdant sid of Finnachadh, Derg Diansgothach in the sid of Cleithid. To each noble of the people of the goddess Danu-bia, Belinos Barinthus Manannan assigned a special dwelling from the houses and places of residence left theirs then he invented for the warriors the vegtos vidtouos (feth fiada), the feast of Gobannos and the magic swine. In other words, through the vegtos vidtouos all these princes could not be seen, all these lords escaped age and decay through the feast of Gobannos, as for the swine of Belinos Barinthus Manannan, the warriors could kill them to eat them, they were all found alive the next morning. Belinos Barinthus Manannan taught all the nobles how to array the sid of Brug and to carry on their mansions in the manner of the peoples of the fair-sided Land of Promise and fair Aballomagos. The nobles conceded in exchange to Belinos Barinthus Manannan [in order to thank it] that when they would had possession of their dwellings, he would be the guest of every house and of every feast given of the lords so that his statute and due and law were over every mansion.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 5.

Their heroes and soldiers having been defeated … The text in Gaelic language mentions here the battles of Tailtiu and Druim Lighean which are, of course, everything except historical battles having really taken place. They symbolically mark the end of the reign of gods on earth, therefore the end of

Hyperborean time, the end of the Metahistory, and consequently the beginning of the purely human history.

The sid of Buidb on the lake Derggert ….It seems well that they are there sites matching each time in fact some megalithic monuments. And all also are as many doors in the other world of the gods. Each one of them is the master of one of these doors but all these fairylike territories are also connected between them and thus form in a way a divine federation that of the United-Sids of Ireland. It goes without saying nevertheless that there are also many other sids all over the world (in Scotland in Wales, etc.,etc.) and that it is therefore because of an undeniable typically Irish chauvinism, that only sids located in Ireland are mentioned in this story as belonging to such or such deity.

All these lords escaped age and decay through the feast of Gobannos, as for the swine of Belinos Barinthus Manannan, the warriors could kill them to eat them, they were all found alive the next morning. Like it or not , it is not thus in this lowly world, it is therefore clear there that we have a short allusion to a heavenly hereafter.

APOCRYPHAL TEXT No. 2 VERSION I.

HERE BEGINS THE WOOING OF ETANNA.

The prince of the Toutai Devas who have had the castle of the Boinne river was called Ivocatuos Ollater (Eochaid Ollathir). He was also named Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt , for it was he that used to work wonders for them and control the weather and the crops. Wherefore men said he was called the Dagda, what means the "Jack of all trade" god-or-demon.

At this time a very beautiful young woman called Viviane/Bo Vinda also lived among the Toutai Devas. She was the sister of Ulcomaros (Elcmar) and she was the wife of Borbo/Nechtan.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 6.

Bovinda means very precisely “white heifer “or “beautiful heifer “ in Celtic language, and therefore matches Damona Vinda on the Continent, even Boendoa in the Netherlands according to Joshua Whatmough.

Last avatar of this goddess-or-demoness, the fairy Viviane.

Some Irish manuscripts mixing a little everything, make this “Beautiful heifer “ already a Etanna. Others don't make her the wife of Borvo/Nechtan, but the wife of Ulcomaros (Elcmar), another name for Ogmios in Ireland.

The situation is therefore not simple. Perhaps she was the sister of Ulcomaros (of Elcmar) and the wife of Borvo/Nechtan ?

As for the Brug or castle on the Boinne River, it is the current mound of Newgrange, located in County Meath, north of Dublin. It is a mound 76 m in diameter, inside which it is possible to reach the funerary chamber by a long passageway. It belongs to a complex of prehistoric sites called Brúg na Bóinne.

It was built around the year 3.200 before our era, that is to say nearly 600 years before the great pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and nearly 1.000 years before Stonehenge. The site consists of a large circular mound in the center of which a funerary chamber is, which can be reached by a very long stone corridor. The external wall of the mound is flanked with monumental stones on which it is possible to observe spiral-shaped drawings and triskelions. Each year, on the day of the winter solstice (on December 21st), at 9:17 in the morning the sun enters directly the central chamber during about 15 minutes. The precision in the orientation of the building is therefore spectacular. The aim of the building seems to have been “to awake “ the ancestors, the important characters whose bodies were laid down in the central funerary chamber. And that the days start again to grow (the great fear of the men of this time was that the length of the day does not cease decreasing until complete disappearance).

It is not therefore a Celtic monument, built by druids, but a monument which struck simply much the imagination of the Celtic peoples who came on the spot. They very quickly incorporated it in their myths to them by making it a dwelling of the god-or-demons, even a main door in this world of the god-or-demons.

N.B. Megaliths are found on a vast coastal area gathering Spain, Portugal, France, as well as Scotland, Ireland and England and up to Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Norway. We find also finds some of them in Corsica and Sardinia, even in India in Japan in Africa and elsewhere.

THE WOOING OF ETANNA AGAIN (VERSION II).

…….

The Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt , the year after he became king, commanded his vassals to hold the Festival of Samon (ios) in order to assess their tributes and taxes for five years. But the men made the same reply, that they would not convene the Festival of Samon for a king that had no queen: for the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt had still no queen when he took the kingship.

TEXT BY CINAED UA hARTACAIN (a great poet in the north of Ireland died in 975).

Extracted from the Book of Leinster.

CINAED UA HARTACAIN CECINIT.

12 Viviane/Bo Vinda, wife of fierce Borbo/Nechtan, came without sorrow thither, to the house of Ulcomaros of the steeds (Elcmar), he who gave judgments from the brug.

13 Viviane/Bo Vinda fair of bloom ? from Bri was at the Brug, in her own brother’s dwelling, when the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt cast eyes on her,and was seized by a desire for her.

14 Thrice sent [messengers] the powerful Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt to whom all the country belonged, and besought proud Ulcomaros (Elcmar) for the woman who was with him in his northern dwelling.

15 Vigorously spoke the brother of the fair and slender Viviane/Bo Vinda of the Sidh: "Long or short be her stay here, I will stay at leisure in mine abode ( ???)"

16 The three druids of the noble Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt return across the blue river of the ford of the fork (Ath Gabla), to tell the king how he might meet the fair and lovely lady.

17 You send the strong Ulcomaros (Elcmar), said the ? soft-voiced druid, to go on a journey from his house ; then you lie with the woman.

18 The Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt answered angrily: Let Ulcomaros (Elcmar) be sent, 'twill be a fierce triumph ! He will not be at least to his knowledge, a pleasant night absent from his stronghold at our bidding.

19 Send him forth upon the road in the plain , though he raises neither cess nor tribute, and let him be nine months abroad.

20 For I will keep the sun in the lofty ridge of the heavens till the end of nine months ripening strong grass.

21 Ulcomaros of the fords (Elcmar) was summoned, because it was always him who was the envoy to the tribes and the king said to him: “Go speedily on an errand for me .”

22 ‘Loath am I to go on your bidding into the country , this I do not conceal, O chief who controls territories : for since my

sister is come from the south, I have no spare time nor pleasure ???'

23 ‘Your errand is to go into the country,' answered he who held the feasting of Fal : Sleep not at night abroad, and come back at once in our beautiful Brug.’

24 "If he accepts your mission,' spoke the druid softly, ‘let entertainment deftly prepared await him in the house to which he goes.

25 When he will reach the silent and without echo house??? let strong new ale be poured out for him : let him be summoned to justify his deeds ??? as soon as he is in the house of the king.”

26 “Tell me your important message” said the swift-footed chief from the hill.

"Do you want when the sun rises to seek have me without ill-will (cen meirg) wife??"

27 Ulcomaros (Elcmare) of the powerful Brug answered : ‘If I can go with your message, tell me, O great and bright king without guile, of whom would you seek a fair woman ? '

28 Seek me a woman strong and wise , who can watch over my northern house, from the king of cold Mag Inis, when you will have sought him in his sid dwelling.

29 Ulcomaros (Elcmar) rises and fares eastwardS, as an envoy with his request : when he reached the king's dwelling, mead and wine were poured out for him.

30 For such time as our fair hero stayed at his ale without useless tarrying, the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt lay with his sister, heeding not the point of honor, nor effects of his revenge ???

31 The powerful lord of the Brug girds himself, and turns homeward across the hills, till the completion of nine months, when the sun at last went down.

32 As he approached the yellow stronghold of the Brug, seeing that none came to meet him, and that a strange ripeness was across the fields, he resented what had been done to him.

33 The suspicious Ulcomaros (Elcmar) also marked while reaching the Brug how upon the lofty mountains beyond him all the flowers had changed while becoming in bloom.

34 ‘Yes,’ said Viviane/Bo Vinda of the powerful Brug to the tall king of Ross: but “Bo [m] gebsa bro thelcha tend nom-loisc eter chend is choiss”, “what awaits me if I am caught is to be burnt alive head and foot in a gigantic fire on a hill”???

35 ‘Hide your fault and I will conceal it,’ answered the Suquellos Dagda Gurgunt, ‘deny it and I will do the same : it were ill that your unfaithfulness should be cast up to your face.’

36 Birth pangs seize the woman in the north of the powerful fortified hill: in the bright grass surrounding the fortress she brought forth a goodly son.

37 Then she spoke : ‘ Since I ate the feast, he is my sole danger (oen-gus); it is why so long as earth is firm [under my feet] , I shall not bring him with me to my house.’

38 ' Young (oc) is the son (in mac)’, answered the dark Suquellos Dagda Gurgunt, ‘who set his foot on Banuta/Banba's land: let him be called Oengus Mac Oc, whosoever would call him so it will be a pleasant name.'

39 Then fear came upon them in the gray estuary, as Ulcomaros/Elcmar the warrior came back into the meadow surrounding his dwelling :they parted before him to south and north, and abandoned the child secretly in the plain.

40 Yet it chanced that the gentle Medros/Midir went by there on the way of the coming back to his sid mansion ; he brought the child home to his dwelling, where he grew to strength and fame.

……

70 As the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt , not lacking in cunning hastened across the beloved plain of the roads ?? stately Namu’s son said to her :‘It would profit you little to make lying protest.’

71 ‘A blessing upon you,' said the lady, ‘It will not be hard . . .’

72 ‘Yonder rise the springs of Segisa/Sequana ….. ?.... whosoever approaches them with a lie [on the conscience] , does not go from them in like guise.'

73 ‘There cupbearers dispense the cool water of the well, what a tale ??? the four of them pace round, guarding it and. . . ?’

74 ‘I will make my way to the pleasing Segisa/Sequana to prove my chastity beyond doubt ; thrice shall I walk widdershins around the permanent? spring without protest from it ??? '

75 But the relentless well burst forth towards her, literally, and then with a cry she lamented her dishonor, when she did not find protection in her undertaking.

76 Fast fled she, and the wild stream pursued her across the land : nor was more seen of the lovely lady, till she reached the water reserved for the boats of the son of Lero/Lir.

77 And the river kept her name for always, for as long as the hills stand : Viviane/Bo Vinda (Boann) is the name of any running water of which the flow is very swift.

78 The age of mighty Borbo/Nechan’s spouse, Cinaed hath rightly established it : the woman’s age when the river extinguished her life, was forty years as regards her body.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 7.

Cecinit. Latin word. Due to the fact that it is a poem written by a Christian this text has three quite precise characteristics.

The first as regards the style is the redundancy: profusion of adjectives applying to the proper names. Needs for versification undoubtedly.

The second of these characteristics is the abundance of images or metaphors, which therefore form as many obstacles for a translator.

Third is that in our opinion we can detect in it some irony from the author with regard to the characters he staged . It is in a way a satire.

Let us admit at the very least considering the continuation (the day which lasts nine months) that we cannot, from the point of view of mythographers, regard all this as the account of a trite adultery.

All the country. In fact, the poem designates it by the name of Banuta (in Gaelic Banba), another name for Ireland.

Vigorously spoke. We translate so the Gaelic word aib of which meaning is rather vague.

The ? soft-voiced druid. Druids act a little as matchmakers. Former druids were also indeed the ambassadors and advisers of kings, including as regards more or less political marriages. Let us not forget nevertheless that it is a poem written by a Christian. In any event the simplest solution for neo-druidism and in order to avoid this kind of at the very least “embarrassing” situation is to never again interfere oneself in this kind of affair.

I will keep the sun in the lofty ridge of the heavens.The same story is found in the biblical episode of the battle of Gibeon (Joshua 10, 13) but over one day, not over a nine-month period.

With regard to the biblical wonder let us remind, in addition to the fact that it proves that the writer of this passage was unaware that it is the Earth which turns around the sun (since obviously he believed the opposite); that it is also evident it did not happen. If the Earth had ceased turning on its axis would be only during a few hours, in order to stop the apparent course of the sun and therefore to make the light of day able to last, then innumerable cataclysms would have resulted from it, OF WHICH THERE WOULD REMAIN OBVIOUS GEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL MARKS OVER THE WHOLE PLANET, WHICH PERHAPS WOULD NOT HAVE PICKED ITSELF UP AGAIN.

Fal is one of the other names of Ireland. Allusion to the feast is there to emphasize that Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt is king of the whole country. Or an allusion to his inexhaustible cauldron (an olla on the Continent).

Mag inis is one of the other worlds of the Celtic mythology in Ireland. In theory inhabited by gigantic anguipedic wyverns (matching the Irish Fomore, vomorioi in old Celtic) but able also to produce creatures endowed with a “diabolical” beauty like Elatio/Elatha. It is useless therefore to seek truth or history in all that. It is, moreover, obvious that all this story is somewhat highly unorthodox in the mind of its author.

Lord of the Brug. We translate so the Gaelic word brugaid but, of course, it can quite simply also be the function of the steward innkeeper manager or hospitaller designated by the same Gaelic word (briugu). What therefore would go very well with his inexhaustible cauldron, symbolized by an olla on the Continent.

Banuta/Banba as we have already seen it is one of the three fairies who have leaned on the cradle of incipient Ireland.

Is beyond doubt. We translate so the Irish expression "as cach geis" which literally means, “geis proof to or beyond all geis = magic order.”

The water reserved for the boats of the son of Lero/Lir. Not to forget that it is a poem. Lero is a sea god known as far as the Mediterranean Sea (the islands of Lerins in Provence). The expression therefore means quite simply sea or ocean.

Forty years old. Literally “five times seven + five.”

As regards her body (i curp). The poet (Cinaed) considers perhaps that she continues therefore to live but no longer in a human form, in the form of a river. There exists indeed in Celtic land innumerable

legends showing us human or more exactly superhuman beings but with a human body, changed in rivers, or rivers personified in a human form, generally female.

Strangely enough, the author of this poem, Cinaed, the great almost official poet of the north of Ireland during the 10th century, seems to think this name (Boann) is a generic name in the beginning, and not precisely located. A name which can apply to each river with swift water and of which the flowing is accelerated. At least if the translation of stanza 77 that we used for that is reliable. In every case that has nothing to do with the belief in the survival of the soul after death (reincarnation, etc.).

The river in question is the Boinne, ex Bouinda > Boand, Boyne in anglicized written form. If it is indeed Ireland, of course, because its other name was Segisa > Segais as we saw it. A name we can parallel with that of the Seine (Sequana) on the continent.

To note. There exists a similar belief with the Saint-Honore fountain near Autun in Burgundy according to the following Panegyric of Constantine.

“ Rightly, therefore, have you honored those most venerable shrines with such great treasures that they do not miss their old ones, any longer. Now may all the temples be seen to beckon you to them, and particularly our Apollo, whose boiling waters punish perjury which ought to be especially hateful to you.

Immortal gods, when will you grant that day on which this most manifestly present god, with peace reigning everywhere, may visit those groves of Apollo as well, both sacred shrines and steaming mouths of springs? Their bubbling waters cloudy with gentle warmth seem to wish to smile, Constantine, at your gaze, and to insert themselves within your Iips.

You will, of course, marvel at that seat of your divinity too, and its waters warmed without any trace of soil on fire, which has no bitterness of taste or exhalation, but a purity of drafts and smell such as you find in icy springs. And there you will grant favors, and establish privileges, and at last restore my homeland because of your veneration of that very spot” (Panegyric of Constantine Augustus XXI).

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 8.

NOTE ABOUT THE ANIMIST COMPONENT OF DRUIDIC SPIRITUALITY.

The life the spirit the energy or the force which exists in all that is moving, is called eon (old Celtic aiu: time eternity). Some people don’t see there a religion, but a way of designing the world, and to organize it (a weltanschauung German philosophers say) present from immemorial time in human mind.

In the modern western societies, turned into a mindless idiot by 2000 years of Judeo-Islamic-Christianity, it is admitted that man shares the same physical world that the rest of the beings which populate the universe. On the other hand, we (human beings) we think to be different from animals or plants through the fact we are subjects, having inwardness, representations, intentions, which are own to us.

Animism proceeds differently. It ascribes to all human and nonhuman beings the same kind of inwardness, subjectivity, intentionality.

Animism supposes the multiplicity in the ways of living in the world, but ascribes to all beings the same kind of, let us say “human,” intentionality. Animal species for example “are humanized,” in the sense that their body attributes are put on the same level as tools: the claws of a bird of prey are its knives.

We find besides at the base of all structured religions these transfigured natural elements. The veneration of rivers in Hinduism such as the Ganges, or in ancient Egypt such as the Nile divinized under the name of Hapi, the fire worship among the Romans in antiquity with the Vestal virgins, are some examples.

The continental equivalent of Bo Vinda/Boann is perhaps the goddess or demoness or fairy Damona, the great doe (the great female of the deer), the perfect prototype of the apparitions of white ladies in forest context.

It is a goddess of rivers, wells and springs, particularly thermal, consort of the god-or-demon Borbo (hence also her name of Bormona).

The four inscriptions of Bourbon-Lancy indicate that she has the ability to visit in dream pilgrims and to cure them. But generally they are invited to bathe in the water of the spring in question.

If Damona seems to appear frequently alongside Borvo, she is also sometimes shown in the company of the god Moritasgus (Alise-Sainte-Reine ), of the god Bormo (Bourbon-Lancy) or of the god Albius (Aignay-le-Duc) or with several of them at the same time (Bourbonne-les-Bains), even more tardily with Apollo himself, what suggests she has a polyandrous nature perhaps at the origin of the legend of the Boinne River. This legend that stages the various steps of the personification of a river, but in a wrong way (in a euhemerist way therefore a “human” being who is changed into… river) is in fact only an attempt at rationalization of the religious phenomenon of animist type, amounting more or less to personify elements or forces of nature, called eons (old Celtic aiu), in order to explain their action.

The category of thought to which such a legend refers is presented by our modern scientists as being precisely that which shows the passage to the Greek stage of the anthropomorphic gods, until the least details, that man can picture in the form of statues having a human appearance, for example; and that some people call analogism. Analogism consists in cutting out the totality of the beings in an ensemble of elements and properties from which partial analogies are imagined: the yin and the yang in the Chinese thought, the stars and the character traits in Sumerian astrology, but also the god of war, the god of trade and the goddess of love, etc....in ancient polytheism. Analogism therefore takes into consideration in fact a multiplicity of possible resemblance between all kinds of singular elements.

But in the thought of the primordial druids of which this legend is an obvious trace, the things were far from being so simple and all the eons or nature spirits were not yet so personified.

In the primordial druidic belief (of the time), each component of the material world we see is still a mysterious being (eon) who hears our invocations and who sees our acts, it is through them that from this life, when their intervention was caused, we receive the punishment deserved for not having honored our commitments.

All that is obvious for example in the case of the oath formula of Celtic type.

Here what the great specialist in Irish literature and laws that the French d’Arbois de Jubainville was, says of it.

The sun, called to witness by Loegaire, burns him when his oath is broken. The sun indeed heard the oath and saw the breaking of it. Earth, wind, water, are not deafer nor blinder than the sun. When the man who concludes a contract calls to them for sanctioning him, they hear his voice, and, if the contract is not fulfilled, they impose the punishment which is in their remit ; that is why the earth swallowed Loegaire, why the wind refused the air necessary to his breathing.

The Celtic oath indeed transports us in a background quite different from the Christian society and even former to that of epic Greece where, in the oath, they called upon the divine couple which, in the hells, punishes the perjurers. At the primitive time , to which one of the forms of the Celtic oath makes us go back, there are three powers man fears especially; they are sky, earth and water.

In the fourth century of our era, among bordering Rhine Celts, when a husband doubted the fidelity of his wife, he put the newborn child on a shield and laid down the shield on the river; if the river absorbed the frail skiff , the child was proven guilty of illegitimacy and the mother of adultery; it was thought the river Rhine had seen this adultery and had heard the call made to his justice by the offended husband.

Roman Emperor Julian speaks about this use of the recourse to a kind poetic justice in a letter sent to the philosopher Maximus. In his second speech to the emperor Constantius, he comes back even to this habit.

This poetic justice about which Julian speaks provided besides the subject of an anonymous piece of poetry collected in the Greek anthology.

These three texts agree to note that in the eyes of the Celts Rhine River was the judge in last resort ; among them therefore existed the notion of a higher power (Tocad, or Tocade, in the feminine) of which the river, by a kind of supernatural manifestation, expressed the decision.

The first of these documents is categorical on another point, on which it agrees with the form of the oath: “Let the sea overflowing submerge us. ” The Rhine delivered the sentence while submerging, the acquittal while making the child floating.

It is more than probable that in 336 before our era, Celts made used a form of oath we will still find in Ireland in the Middle Ages.

In 336 before our era, Celtic ambassadors (therefore some druids) indeed came to meet Alexander the Great, then at the beginning of his reign. They made an alliance with him. They confirmed the treaty by an oath: “If we do not respect our commitments,” they say, “ let the sky crush us by falling on our heads ; the earth swallowing us by half-opening; the sea submerging us by overflowing .”

From two texts of Greek authors contemporary of Alexander the Great , we must conclude that this form was indeed used by Celts at the date which we indicate, namely - 336.

After having made the ambassadors drink, Alexander asked them: “What do you fear more? ”

Instead of to answer him: “It is you” as doubtless Alexander hoped for, the Celts, after having consulted , answered:

« We fear nobody; we fear only one thing, it is that the sky falls on us.”

This answer was preserved to us among the fragments which remain of a book written by one of the most famous Alexanders’s lieutenants , Ptolemy, died a king of Egypt in 283.

Alexander regarded the answer of the Celts as insolence. His master, Aristotle, made perhaps a different observation according to his book entitled Nicomachean Ethics. Celts, noticed it, fear only one thing, it is that the sky falls on them if they do not fulfill their treaty of alliance; they believe therefore not to have to be concerned with the last two articles of their oath: Consequently, they are afraid neither of the earthquakes, nor of the floods; therefore they are mad or insensitive to pain. Such was the reasoning of Aristotle, died in 322, fourteen years after Alexander’s interview with the Celtic ambassadors.

Completely idiotic, of course!

In order to understand the Celtic form of oath well, it is necessary to return somewhat on what animism is.

The Judeo-Islamic-Christians and our modern scientists call today in a somewhat condescending * way and esteeming themselves always implicitly well above it *, of course, “animism” ; the fact of considering that all that is moving is living and that various more or less conscious forces are working in nature, from the sea which submerges the lands to the pack of wolves approaching its prey by way of the wind which carves out tirelessly dunes or mountainous reliefs.

The easy way out of this problem would perhaps, of course, consist in considering all these nature eons as auxiliaries of an abstract and neutral entity set very above in the ontological scale of beings, in some kind some secondary causes of a cosmic fate being able occasionally to act as a kind of poetic justice (providence Christians would say) but poetry in less, alas for our human nature.

Introduced at the end of the 19th century by Edward Burnett Tylor to designate the religion of societies he called “primitive” the concept of animism was an undeniable success.

For Tylor, animism represented the first stage of human religiosity that of the most primitive societies, and it was to be followed by fetishism, [like the fetishism of the sword in Celtic land for example] then by polytheism and lastly, of course, monotheism, which characterized the religion of his own society.

By default or convenience, it is from now on used in the current language or in the statistics, as a catch-all word generally designating the whole of what, not belonging to the mass monolatrous religions based on sacred texts (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, even Hinduism and Buddhism…) is conveyed by oral traditions. N.B. The word itself, often vitiated with colonialist connotations, or at least perceived as pejorative, is sometimes replaced by expressions such as “popular beliefs,” “indigenous beliefs,” “traditional religions.”

Animism is the belief in a soul, a vital force, animating living beings but also natural elements, like stones or winds. These souls or these minds can act on the tangible world, in a beneficial way or not. It is therefore advisable to worship them or at least not to irritate them.

Principles of animism.

There is no absolute cut or gap between the various kingdoms, divine, angelic or demonic, human, animal, vegetable, mineral.Everything is bound in the scale of beings. Everything is tied in the universe.

All that exists, particularly all that is moving and living, conceals in itself something which is not strictly material.

This something inside beings is a force or an energy, endowed with variable conscientiousness and located unequally in the universe.

The soul of the man is a very good example of these force-beings.

Animism is therefore a spirituality which ascribes something like a soul or a mind to things. The spirit or energy exists independently of the thing, either this one is alive or dead. Some believe for example that animals and plants too, have a soul, and that this soul never disappears.

According to some authors there also exists a shamanism of animist type. The Bororos in Brazil have for example two types of shamanism of which one is with an animist base and the other with a totemic base. The specialists of the first one deal with the relationship with non-humans (animals) by performing rites during which it is a question of removing these animals from their intentionality, in order to be able to eat them without fatal consequences.

Animism was often brought closer to shamanism. But shamanism rather designates the belief in the possibility of communicating (mediation) with the other world ; which can, of course, be that of the souls or minds but also that of the dead, of the animals. In practice, however, animism always involves some amount of shamanism in the sense that to postulate the existence of a world of souls without letting us foresee any means of reaching or of exchanging with it would be used for nothing. Besides the mass monolatries like Judaism Christianity or Islam too, also admit that it is possible to communicate with superhuman or divine entities: through prayer or exorcism, for example. Because in reality all the religions accept the existence of these inner forces that some people call spirits, or demons, or jinns, or angels, etc., whether these entities are regarded as good or evil. The three main monolatrous religions conceal in themselves several theories on these eons or force-beings which can take various forms.

But among animists, these concepts are primitive only insofar as they relate to simple beings: stone, rock, sand, wind, water, fire.

In an animist society nobody wonders to know if it is believed or not in spirits: it is not a question of faith, it is an experience which is interpreted .

Animism is not a deliberately built system of thought, but an ontology, a way of viewing the world, which does not involve celebrating worship, nor even having a “belief.” Animism is much more than a belief that you could choose to have or not to have. It is a way of designing the world organized in categories of existing one based on their own particular quality attributes and behaviors . Besides it would be necessary to agree on what means the word “belief". The verb “to believe” has indeed at least two meanings: to believe in the truth of something, or to adopt an attitude of acceptance towards a fact or an idea.

Monolatrous religions developed a mentality which has as a result that there exist “articles of faith.” Example the resurrection of the bodies in order they can face the dooms day. Especially not to confuse with the druidic belief in the regeneration of bodies in a parallel other world of heavenly type after death. They require a positive adherence and establish a difference between those who believe and those who do not. Clergy cultivates this collective mentality by asking faithful to reaffirm their faith constantly.

Yet all that is inconceivable in animism, where belief is not a dogma, but a lived experience. In given circumstances, a whole of clues makes a shaman able to infer the presence of a spirit with which he can get in touch. Or some signs will indicate the existence of an intention behind an animal action, or the aspect of a plant.

The practical consequence is that an animist cannot to lapse into religious intolerance, because his “gods” do not base their existence on the disappearance of the others.

To return to shamanism it is therefore one of the means of coming into contact with these eons or nature forces.

Its main technique consists in binding oneself with the energies of the universe through various methods of meditation or trances known as soul’s journey. This altered state of consciousness makes the shaman able to contact the invisible one, the spiritual substance. The altered state of consciousness necessary to perform a soul’s journey is generally reached using drugs, of musical instruments, songs or dances.

Scythians had their shamans, who breathed smoke of cannabis and went into ecstasy (Abaris is Scythian for some authors) and a scholium brought to the verse 451 of the Book 1 of Lucan’s Pharsalia mentions that former druids used to perform divination after having eaten acorns.

It goes without saying it was impossible for the men of this time to realize that what they saw then, under the effect of trance or drug, was only a simple product from their brain, only a simple fantasy, the operating process of this extraordinary organ being infinitely less well known to them than it is today for our modern neurologists. For them what was visualized by their brain existed, really, somewhere , in this world, or another one.

* As if their beliefs in angels in demons in jinns in powers of prophets or other nonsense were really less higher placed on the Richter scale of obscurantism. In any case what is certain, it is that animist could not be by definition intolerant since his eons (nature gods spirits or souls) could not live on the disappearance of the others.

RETURN TO THE WOOING OF ETANNA VERSION I.

The Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt meanwhile brought his son to Medros/Midir's house in Brí Léith in Tethba, to be fostered in this place. There Mabon/Maponos/Oengus was reared for the space of nine years [with a clairvoyant named Nindid]. Medros/Midir had a great playing field in Brí Léith. Thrice fifty lads of the young nobles of the country were there and thrice fifty maidens. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus was the leader of them all, because of Medros/Midir's great love for him, and the beauty of his form and the nobility of his race. He was also called the Young Son, for his mother said during its birth: ‘truly precocious is the son who was begotten at the break of day and born betwixt it and evening.’

Now Mabon/Maponos/Oengus quarreled with Tretis (Triath) son of Febal (or Gobor) of the Fir Bolg Gauls, who was one of the two leaders in the game, and a fosterling of Medros/Midir. It was no matter of pride with Mabon/Maponos/Oengus that Tretis (Triath) should speak to him, and he said: ‘It irks me that the son of a serf should hold speech with me,’ for Mabon/Maponos/Oengus had believed until then that Medros/Midir was his father, and the kingship of Brí Léith his heritage, and he did not know of his kinship with the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt.

Tretis (Triath) made answer and said: ‘I take it no less ill that a hireling whose mother and father are unknown should hold speech with me.’

Thereupon Mabon/Maponos/Oengus went to Medros/Midir weeping and sorrowful at having been put to shame by Tretis (Triath).

What is this? said Medros/Midir.

Tretis (Triath) has defamed me and cast in my face that I have neither mother nor father.

‘Tis false, said Medros/Midir.

Who is my mother then, from whence is my father ?

No hard matter. Your father is the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, said Medros/Midir, and Viviane/ Bo Vinda , wife of Borbo/Nechtan , sister of Ulcomaros (Elcmar) of the Brug, is your mother.But it is I that have reared you.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 9.

Precocious. We translate so the Gaelic word óc which also means “young” quite simply.

The presence of Fir Bolg Gauls in this episode surprises. Perhaps it is it a piece of evidence that it is well some Gauls who has constrained the gods to leave the surface of the land , or that this legend is of Bolg origin i.e., Belgian.

THE NURTURE OF THE HOUSE OF THE TWO MILK PAILS AGAIN.

When the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt heard that Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) began to respond to the invitations made by the various chiefs of the Toutai Devas, and that he was going to make a round of visits to the sids; he sent his son Dergos Boduos to invite him to come first at his place.

Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) therefore left for the dewy-green bank of the Boinne River. Fresh reeds were laid on the floor in front of him, and he went into the completely enlightened palace.

This was the description of the mansion: a beautiful bronze floor from each door to that opposite, with plates of white bronze on the floors, and well-shaped silver couches on the structures with beautiful posts with shapely edges to them and corners, with crimson (?) birds sweetly musical on top of those corners . . .

Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) was marveled at such splendor, and he felt great pleasure to hear the jollity of the youths, the merriment of the maidens at their embroidery and the noise of chess being played.

In short, the chiefs of the Toutai Devas and all the other nobles of the Land of Promise were there also, and all were jealous of the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, because of the beauty of his palace on the dewy-green bank of the Boinne River.

The Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt called his servants and his head steward to come to him (Dichu was his name) and this is what he said: ‘go for me, my good people, to the ravines and cataracts and river mouths to seek fish, fowl and venison for the sovereign.’

Dichu went along with his noble son, Roc, and the princes sat down to the feast.

Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) sat with the warriors. Dergos Boduos sat at his right hand, the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt at his hand that holds the shield in every fray, Echdonn Mor, the son of Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) , sat at the southern side with Abartach to that noble’s right and Sithmall Siteach to his left, and every man of the warriors from that in his place among contemporaries. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus was with the attendants arranging and giving orders, and every kind of drink and delicacy was given out correctly so that the company were cheerful and gay.

Our heroes spent three days and three nights in that manner, and at the end of the fourth day Belinos Barinthus (Manannan ) was obliged to clear the house, for nobody was left in the mansion with a spark of consciousness except Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. He began to argue with Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and spoke as follows: ‘this is a pleasant house, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, and I never saw its like save Cruitin Na Cuan or Aballomagos and the situation on the bank of the Boinne at the border of the five provinces is good. If I were you, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, this house would be mine and I would summon the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt to quit it. You would get luck and prosperity from powerful friends after that. He recited the following poem…. After that poem Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) addressed Mabon/Maponos/Oengus again and said:

-Do you know, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, that of all you of the Toutai Devas who are alive that I am chief of your kings, senior of your hosts, shining light of your battalions and lord of your champions, and though Medros/Midir be your tutor yet it is I am your tutor in valor, in feats of arms, and in druidism, that I am also foster son of your father, the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, and to any child of your father who has wealth I have somewhat also to give him ?

-I am glad you admit that, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. But what the reason for such…. speech, is ???

I will inform you, said Belinos Barinthus (Manannan), but pledge your word, your crimson shield, your sword and the fair adorable gods that you will act on my advice this time.

He convinced Mabon/Maponos/Oengus by his urgency for …..

Do you know, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, that it is not fitting that the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt . . . and that it isn't to him that the mansion and the lordship on the Boinne River should have gone ???? When we are come back to sit in the hall after its cleaning, go in front of the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt and summon him to depart , that will bring you good luck and prosperity , and to him misfortune exile and adversity ????

Editor’s note. It ensues from that in our text then the umpteenth Christian fake, an obvious interpolation due to the hand of a Christian copyist monk, that we do not resist nevertheless the pleasure of giving to meditate to our readers:

"That is; the luck that angels came from the king of the palace and the Creator of the universe, the luck that we took the kingship of Votala (of Ireland) from the Fir Bolg Gauls , the luck that the sons of Mile took the throne of Green Erin themselves again.”

Warn him that he may not come to the house he leaves till ogham and pillar be blended together, till heaven and earth, till the sun and the moon be blended together.

God is not above our gods said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

It is nevertheless so, said Belinos Barinthus (Manannan). The one almighty God is able to subdue our idol gods and they are not able to despoil Him who is the powerful Lord having made heaven and earth and the sea with wonders, and made the universe complete.

Do you know, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, said Belinos Barinthus (Manannan), what mankind was first created?

I do not know, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

Here is the answer said Belinos Berinthus Manannan. The one God of whom we spoke fashioned ten orders of angels round Him. The lord of the tenth order grew scornful and envious in his mind and therefore they left the heavenly plain…. God therefore fashioned mankind . . . and those who left His kingdom with hubris He turned into demons and made a dungeon and prison for their torments. Everyone who does His will is brought to the palace and everyone who goes against it is put in that dungeon for worst torments. Such is the reason for the creation. But we are not of that origin Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) said, so act on my advice this time.

I hesitate to do it?????? Mabon/Maponos/Oengus said, because I nevertheless benefitted from the pleasure and from the honor of the house and their profit will well belong to me one day?????? No son from now on will be held in repute by his father if I do this thing???????

Stop that, said Manannan; for a king is always nobler than a knight , or a lord than an heir, ruling is better than assisting

and assured means better than doles. To do according to your own will is better than your father’s or mother’s, or to request to either of the two members of the couple????

That convinced Mabon/Maponos/Oengus completely, and he said: ‘your advice shall be acted on this time, O high king, but which is it ??’

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 10.

The Christian transcribers of this legend have tried, of course, to Christianize the account.

1. By bowdlerizing what disturbed them more, and that, on their own admission : « He recited the following poem »: specifies one of the versions (but the poem disappeared). It is true that it was to be perhaps a piece of rhetoric with more or less magic value.

2. By adding here and there various paragraphs of Christian inspiration, or at least wanting to be such. Case oof course of the few lines above.

The conflict of sovereignty between god-or-demons of paganism is reduced to a conflict between God and a demon (Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt), condemned by him.

Belinos Barinthus/Manannan seems there having been charged by God with making the sentence enforced . He appears besides quite cynical while doing that !

We have therefore, expounded there in its whole biblical simplicity, Judeo-Islamic-Christianity in a rough state: God needs for courtiers or sycophants singing his glory ( angels then men) and watch out for those who do not dance to his tune ! It is hell guaranteed.

But all that is yet only half-Christian and we can still distinguish in this outline the highest principles of the druidic monism.

- A higher Being, the Fate (Tokad, Irish Tocad or Toicthech); because former druids had turned “chance” (sic) into a God-or-Demiurge according to Saint Columba of Iona and one of his loricae: “I do not adore the voice of birds… nor a son, neither CHANCE, nor the woman. Na mac, Na mana, Na mnan.My druid is the son of God…” etc.

- Divine and celestial emanations, the god-or-demons (renamed angels of course).

Then men taking their place little by little after the revolt of some of the first ones led by Lugifer.

HERE RETURN TO THE WOOING OF ETANNA VERSION I.

I have this for you, said Belinos Barinthus (Manannan). On the day of Samon (ios) go into the Brug (into the castle), and go armed. That is a day of peace and amity among men , on which none is at enmity with his fellow.

The Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt will be unarmed save for a fork of white hazel in his hand, his cloak folded around him and a gold brooch in his cloak. Go to him and threaten to kill him. Except if he promises to act according to your will. And let this be your will , that you be king for a day and a night in the Brug (that is to say his estate) ; and see that you not yield the land to the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt till he submits himself to a judgment given by me publicly in this case; and when he comes let your plea be that the land has fallen to you in fees for sparing his life and not slaying him, and that what you had asked for is kingship of day and night, and say it is in days and nights that the world is spent.

Then Medros/Midir sets out for his land, and his foster son along with him. On the Samon following, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus having armed himself came into the house of the Brug and made a feint at the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt so that he promised him in return for his life kingship of day and night in his land. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus straightway abode there that day and the following night as king of the land, his household being subject to him during this time. On the morrow the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt came to claim his land from Mabon/Maponos/Oengus , and therewith threatened him mightily. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus said that he would not yield up the land until he should put the case to the judgment of Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) in the presence of all the men of the country.

They appeal therefore to Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) who adjudged each man's contract in accordance with his undertaking.

It is fitting this land belongs henceforth to this youth, decided consequently Belinos Barinthus. You were taken unawares on a day of peace and amity. You gave your land for mercy shown you, for your life was dearer to you than your land, but you will have land from me that will be no less profitable to you than the Brug.

It is well, said the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt; so will it be accomplished.

The Suquellos Dagda Gurgunt went out of the mansion of the Brug with all his people both men and women. (And since that summons it is no longer possible to say a demon has no power for even if all the people in Ireland were then trying to hinder them from leaving, they could not do it by reason of the force of this magic.) When the Suquellos Dagda Gurgunt came out on the dewy-sloped lawn of the mansion, he looked upon his wife and on his household.

It is pitiful, wretched you are now, dear people, he said ! You are reluctant to leave the Boinne and the mansion, and henceforward you will find great woe and madness. It is treacherous Belinos Barinthus Manannan who taught this magic formula to my son by druidism and devilry so as to banish me, and now woe to ?????

I swear by my life, said the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt , that had Mabon/Maponos/Oengus begged the rule of the mansion of me I would, of course, have given it to him without being challenged.

After that the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt left them, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus came out on the lawn and began to talk to him earnestly. He came to delay and stop him for shame and repentance had seized him. But he could not be delayed by reason of the power of the curse which Mabon/Maponos/Oengus had laid on him. The Suqellos Dadga Gurgunt went forward and, when he was out of sight, the company had gone with him. At that moment Mabon/Maponos/Oengus saw the chief steward of the mansion, his wife and his fair son approaching. They told each other their explanations and the chief-steward accepted Mabon/Maponos/Oengus’s protection. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus said to him : ‘remain in office as if you had not been present in this house at the time of the summons ’; and the whole superintendence of the mansion was put in his charge.

It so happened that the wife of the chief steward was pregnant at that time. When Mabon/Maponos/Oengus perceived it, he asked to be foster father. They came together into the mansion and the chief steward asked for Belinos Barinthus Manannan’s friendship. The nobles inquired of Belinos Barinthus Manannan where the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt would find rest.

I know not, said Belinos Barinthus (Manannan), and no prophet or sage in the whole world knows, but the one God Almighty knows.

Then Mabon/Maponos/Oengus held the feast of the mansion in honor of Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) and the nobles of the tribe of the goddess Danu (bia) . When the time came at the end of the feast for the nobles . . . to listen to singing...Mabon/Maponos/Oengus said to him : ‘your wife is pregnant and whatever child is born I receive to bring up and educate.The child of every other member of the people of the goddess Danu-bia shall get the same , said Belinos Barinthus (Manannan)… ????

Manannan went away to his fort and the time came and his wife bore the fruit of her womb, a shapely lovely daughter with a tip of curly yellow-colored hair on her head, for which reason she was baptized or called by the name of Curcog . She was given to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus to bring up and educate with the daughters of other rulers of her own age along with her.

As to the steward’s wife; she bore a daughter at that time, she was named Etanna and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus took her like every other foster child to educate. A beautiful sunny house of varied design was made for the maidens and they were there for a good while being educated. There was never before or after them a company of women so severe and so chaste as that of Curcog’s but one of them excelled all the others in appearance in severity and in chastity viz., Etanna the daughter of Dichu. There was no one who saw her who did not fall in love with her. It is she was most pleasing to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus of the maidens and the fame of that company spread to the four corners of the country. The daughter of the steward was more famous than all the womenfolk or than Curcog herself, and the nobles of the people of the goddess Danu (bia) came in this place by reason of their repute.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 11.

In the presence of all the men of the country.It is therefore there clearly an arbitration delivered publicly. Let us point out nevertheless that contrary to appearances Manannan by no means seems to have been a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann at the beginning, which is explained if it is admitted that up to that point he is only in fact the « mannish » (from the Isle of Man) avatar, of a Celtic god known by another name.

The fact remains that the situation of the Irish Panth-eon is not very clear, and that it seems to be divided into two rival clans, that of Lug and that of Tuireann. These coups d'etat or these palace revolutions in the Irish Panth-eon are undoubtedly due to the lack of communication with the continental Celtism and its great international druidic councils; to centuries and centuries of separate evolution.

The one God Almighty knows. It is there, everybody will agree on this subject, I think, quite a strange answer in the mouth of a pagan god. It looks very "Muslim .”

Curcog means in Gaelic language tufts of disheveled hair, in a muddle locks.

Severity chastity…this description makes us a little think of a convent of nuns. Christianity went through. All the question is to know what the specifically Christian contribution is in this kind of text. It is not Christianity for example which invented these kinds of boarding schools for noble children.

The fosterage of children in the house of a more or less close relative is a use very frequently met in the matrilineal cultures, where the inheritance is transferred by women. If the inheritance of the maternal property is direct, sometimes that of the name or of the titles, the transfer of the cultural legacy of males as regards hunting or war requires the intervention of another male. The maternal uncle is therefore most able to hand down this initiatory culture, while remaining close to the matrilineal filiation.

In the absence of an uncle, or in other cultures, another male will be chosen in the close family, among the allies, even somebody whose high social status (chief of the tribe, king or prince) will guarantee the boy a suitable future and a social recognition.

The fosterage of children in the house of a maternal uncle or another member of the kin was a very known practice of the Celts in late antiquity.

This practice is distinct from the adoption, in that it does not call into question the recognized genetic ties with the biological parents of the child.

This social practice is structuring societies, as marriages and alliances, which create particular bonds between families and clans. It therefore concerns anthropology as well as sociology, and is found in many traditional societies (old Europe, Africa, India, Oceania).

This type of board is a mode of training of the young boys, between the childhood and the status of an adult. It consists, in its most exemplary form, to entrust the education of boys to a maternal uncle.

Once the childhood spent with his mother, the boy is entrusted to his maternal uncle about the seven-year age. He changes his house then, and obeys from now on his uncle. His (pastoral or other) work benefits the household of his uncle. On the other hand, this one feeds him, accommodates him , and carries out his formation, particularly hunting and war. It is therefore a kind of adoption although temporary. This probation lasts until the inclusion of the teenager in the society of adults, often marked by particular initiatory rites. If this type of board generally concerns the male child and the brother of his mother, there exist examples in which that concerns girls. The bond created thus is durable, as we can see it in stories.

To return to the question of the level of Christianization of such a story , simplest is perhaps to suppose that scholars of the Early Middle Ages seized the topic of the boarding school for young girls of nobility and accentuated the Christian characteristics of it, by making them almost nuns. What was not to be the case nevertheless in the original accounts.

BELOW AGAIN THE WOOING OF ETANNA VERSION I.

Then Medros/Midir came on that day a year later to the Brug on a visit to his fosterling, and he found Mabon/Maponos/Oengus on the mound of the Brug’s sidh on the day of Samon (ios), with two teams of youth playing before him in the Brug, and Ulcomaros on the mound of Cleitech to the south, watching them. A quarrel broke out among the youths in the Brug. Do not stir, said Medros/Midir to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, because of Ulcomaros, lest he come down to the plain. I will go myself to make peace between them.

Thereupon Medros/Midir went, and it was not easy for him to part them. A spit of holly was thrown at Medros/Midir as he was intervening, and it knocked one of his eyes out. Midir came to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus with his eye in his hand and said to him: ‘Would that I had not come on a visit to you, to be put to shame, for with this blemish I cannot behold the land I have come to, and the land I have left, I cannot return to it like that now.’

It will in no wise be so, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus . I shall go to Deinocacectis (Diancecht) that he may come and heal you, and your own fief shall be yours and this land shall be yours, your eye will be whole again, you will be without shame or blemish because of it. The Mac Óc went to Deinocacectis (Diancecht) [...] that you may go with me, said he, to save my foster father who has been hurt in the Brug on the day of Samon (ios).

Deinocacectis (Diancecht) came and healed Medros/Midir, so that he was whole again.

Good is my journeying now, said Medros/Midir, since I am healed.

It will surely be so, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. But do you abide here for a year that you may see my host and my folk, my household and my land.

I shall not stay, said Medros/Midir, unless I have a compensation for the damage I underwent.

What compensation ? said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

Easy to say. A chariot worth seven cumala [ that is thirty-five cattle heads ] said Medros/Midir, a mantle befitting me, and the fairest maiden in the country.

I have the chariot, and the mantle befitting you, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

I want, moreover, said Medros/Midir, the maiden that surpasses all the maidens in form.

Where is she? said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

She lives at home, answered Medros/Midir, Etanna the daughter of Dichu your chief steward. It is most beautiful and gentlest and loveliest in the country.

Mabon/Maponos/Oengus went to seek her until he came to Dichu's house. He was made welcome, of course, and he told his mission. He said that it was in quest of his daughter Etanna that he had come.

I shall not give her to you, said Dichu, for I can in no way ask something to you, because of the nobility of your family, and the greatness of your power and that of your father. If you harm my daughter, no redress whatsoever can be had of you in compensation for the price of her lost honor.

It will not be so, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. I shall buy her from you.

You will have that, said Dichu.

State your demand, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

No hard matter said Dichu. You will clear for me twelve plains that are under waste and wood, so that they may be at all times for grazing cattle and for habitation to me, for games and assemblies, gatherings, and strongholds.

It will be done, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

He left and bewailed to the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt the strait he was in.

The latter caused twelve plains to be cleared in a single night . These are the names of the plains: it is the plains of Macha, Lemna, Nitha, Tochair, Dula, Techt, Lí, Line, Muirthemne. Now when that work had been accomplished Mabon/Maponos/Oengus went to Dichu to demand Etanna.

You will not obtain her, said Dichu, until you draw out of this land to the sea twelve great rivers in order to dry moist places bogs and moors, so that they may bring produce from the sea to peoples and kindreds, and drain the earth and the land.

Mabon/Maponos/Oengus came again to the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt to bewail the strait he was in. And thereupon the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt caused twelve great waters to course towards the sea in a single night. They had not been seen there until then. These are the names of the waters: Find and Modornn, Slena, Nas, Amnas, Oichén, Or, Banda, Samaír and Lóche. Now when these works were accomplished Mabon/Maponos/Oengus came to have speech with Dichu in order to claim Etanna.

You will not get her till you purchase her, for after you have taken her, I shall have no profit of the maiden beyond what I shall obtain forthwith.

What do you require of me now? said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

I require, said Dichu, the maiden's weight in gold and silver, for me personally ; because all that you have done up to now, the profit of it in fact will go to our folk and our kindred ??

It will be done, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. She was placed [in scales laid out ] on the floor of Dichu's house, and her weight of gold and silver was given for her. That treasure was left with Dichu , and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus brought Etanna home with him.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 12.

Former druidism gave much importance to the good bodily health, and even in fact quite simply to the wholeness of the human body. It was in particular necessary for any man of power (for a king particularly) to have a completely intact body. The famous mythical king Noadatus/Nuada/Nodons/Lludd (see the legends concerning the first battle of Mag Tured = Cath Maighe Tuireadh Cunga) for example having lost an arm, consequently loses his throne at the same time. It is perhaps the same thing in this case for Medros/Midir. Having lost an eye he is no longer allowed to rule his fiefdom . Well, perhaps! It is only an assumption. What is certain it is that he is not completely blind but he became one-eyed. What is not at all the same thing. And to have only one eye never prevented a god or a king to rule at least in Germanic mythology (cf. Odin).

I will not give her to you. In other words, Dichu does not want a marriage too much unequal because of the legal provisions of then. It would be too difficult to get compensation from Mabon/Maponos /Oengus in the event of injury caused to Etanna. To know more on the FORMER Celtic law see our opuscule on ethics.

I shall buy her from you. We have there in fact the most primitive form of marriage which is. The wife is bought from her family, from her father more precisely. I know it is not beautiful, but it was thus at the time! The marriage only due to love is a recent idea, what mattered formerly it was not the marriage of love but that love of “conjugal love” type can result from it. See Plutarch on this subject.

The clearing of the twelve plains. The topic of the clearing of a certain number of plains often recurs in the Irish legends. We will find it besides again a little further.

Her weight of gold and silver.All that it was former druidism! We can continue to be inspired by it as regards the external forms or the traditional symbolism of the ritual relating to wedding. The weight of the bride in gold or silver can be replaced for example by a symbolic coin. A unit of the official currency of the country. But it goes without saying as regards the spirit that such a design of the marriage should no longer prevail. Marriage must be the freely agreed union of a boy and of a girl, of a man and of a woman, sincerely eager to live together and to put their means in common, particularly in the prospect to have one day some children.

The last remark of Dichu is an allusion to the characteristics of the Celtic marriage as regards the transfer of the immovable property. On the status of the woman before and after marriage in the Celtic society see our study on druidic ethics.

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Medros/Midir made that company welcome, of course. That night Etanna slept with him, and on the morrow a mantle befitting him and a chariot were given to him, and he was pleased with his foster son. After that he abode a full year in the castle of the Brug with Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. On that day a year after, Midir went to his own land, to Brí Léith, and he brought Etanna with him. On that day he went from him Mabon/Maponos/Oengus said to Medros/Midir: give heed to the woman you take with you, because of the dreadful cunning shrew that awaits you over there, with all the knowledge and skill and craft that belongs to her race, said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, also she has my word and my safeguard against all the people of the great goddess Danu (bia).

He wanted to speak of Vocumnaca ( Fuamnach) wife of Medros/Midir, from the progeny of Bivotacos fils de Iariponalis (Beothach son of Iardanél). She was very expert and very versed in all knowledge as in all magic crafts of the tribe of the great goddess because it is the druid Bresalos who had then reared her, before she was betrothed to Medros/Midir.

Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) made her husband welcome, that is Medros/Midir, and spoke much of [...] to them.

Come, O Medros/Midir, said Vocumnaca (Fuamnach), that I may show the house and the stretch of land to the daughter of the king. Medros/Midir went round all his land with Vocumnaca (Fuamnach), who showed the seizing to him and [...] to Etanna. But after that Medros/Midir brought Etanna again in the house of Vocumnaca (Fuamnach).

Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) went before them into the sleeping chamber wherein she usually slept, and she said to Etanna: ‘The seat (suide) of a good woman you have come into !’

So when Etanna sat down in the chair standing in the middle of the house, Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) struck her with a rod of scarlet quicken-tree (caerthinn corcrai) , and she turned into a pool of water in the middle of the house; then Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) comes to her foster-father Bresal, and Medros/Midir left the house to the water into which Etanna had turned. After that Medros/Midir was without a wife.

The heat of the fire and the air and the seething of the ground aided the water so that the pool that was in the middle of the house turned into a worm, and after that the worm became a [gigantic, of an unknown species] purple fly. It was as big as a man's head, and the comeliest in the world. Sweeter than pipes and harps and horns [...] was the sound of her voice and the hum of her wings. Her eyes would shine like precious stones in the dark. The fragrance and the bloom of her would turn away hunger and thirst from anyone around whom she would go. The spray of the drops she shed from her wings would cure all sickness and disease and plague in anyone round whom she would go. She used to attend Midir and go round about his land with him, as he went. To listen to her and gaze upon her would nourish hosts in gatherings and assemblies of warriors in camps. Medros/Midir knew that it was Etanna that was in that shape, and so long as that fly was attending upon him, he never took to himself a wife, and the sight of her would nourish him. He would fall asleep with her humming, and whenever anyone approached who did not love him, she would awaken him.

After a time Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) came on a visit to Medros/Midir, and along with her as sureties and bodyguards came the three gods of Danu (bia), namely Lug, the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, and Ogmios. Medros/Midir reproached Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) exceedingly and said to her that she should not go from him were it not for the power of the bodyguards that had brought her. Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) said that she did not repent of the deed she had done, for that she would rather do good for herself than to another, and that in whatsoever part of the country she might be she would do nothing but harm to Etanna so long as she lived, and in whatsoever shape she might be. She brought powerful incantations in accordance with the lessons (dicelta mora & tecosca ) from Bresalos Etarlamos the druid to banish and warn off Etanna from Medros/Midir, for she had understood that the purple fly that was delighting Medros/Midir was Etanna herself, because whenever he saw the scarlet fly, Medros/Midir loved no other woman, and he found no pleasure in music or in drinking or eating when he did not see her and hear her music and her voice. Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) stirred up a druidic wind of assault so that Etanna was wafted from Brí Léith, and for seven years she could not find a summit or a tree or a hill or a height on which she could settle, but only rocks of the sea and the ocean waves. She was floating through the air until seven years from that day when she lighted on the breast of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus as he was on the mound of the Brug.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 13.

Beothach son of Iardanel. See the various peopling of the country according to the book of conquests (lesson 2). The author mixes a little everything nevertheless because Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and Medros/Midir also don’t look very kosher. And it is necessary to step a little into the shoes of the legitimate wife, Fuamnach, who cannot imagine such a cheek from her husband Medros/Midir and who, of course, will take very badly this attempt at a threesome (when she has understood).

A fly. All the difficulty in fact is to translate the Gaelic word cuil. A fly, gnat, flea??? As regards flies, there exists of them all kinds, from the common green bottle fly (lucilia caesar) to the English butter fly (because witches did change themselves into this kind of flies to steal butter?) by way of the French honey fly (the bee).

It is there the topic of the spontaneous generation. The only way of explaining certain cases of appearance of life for the men of this time. The belief in the spontaneous generation a long time formed part of the common sense, because the appearance of living beings where none was seen to the naked eye is a phenomenon of common observation. During thousands of years, men had realized that their livestock needed a coupling to produce young. Cows could not have calves without a bull, ewes no lambs without a ram, etc. Nevertheless, for the small animals, they continued to believe that maggots could be born from a piece of meat. Micro-organisms, microbes and yeast, therefore seemed the product of a spontaneous generation.

At the beginning of the 19th century, this theory was still supported by the great French scientists who were Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. They considered both that the simplest forms of life, the infusoriae, could still appear by spontaneous generation.

The fact remains that what is previous (the change into a pool of water by a magic wand) and what follows (the passage of a human consciousness into the body of an animal, extraordinary in addition ) are two phenomena more difficult to believe.

The topic of the passage of a human conscientiousness in an animal body comes under shamanism.

Best is therefore perhaps still to leave the last word in fact to the druids of the book I of the Pharsalia by Lucan: “

To you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know (verses 451 to 453).

Let our readers therefore do in the same way and think what they want of these three phenomena:

- spontaneous generation.

- change into water thanks to a magic wand (Moses has well made a spring gush out of a rock by smiting it with his rod : Numbers 20, 8-12)

- shamanism (many works on prehistoric shamanism in Europe even on the discovery of the Hyperborean or Scythian shamanism by the Greeks in the seventh century before our era and the travel of the soul).

Experts call "Hyperborean” or “Apollinian” a group of thinkers or magi or shamans former to Socrates and even to the first of pre-Socratics (Thales): Aristeas Proconnesius (about -600), Epimenides of Knossos (about -595), Pherecydes of Syros (about -550), Abaris (about -540), Hermotimus of Clazomenae (about-500). The Greeks made them a school, which anticipated Pythagoreanism.

With Abaris and Aristeas, here is the frenzy of Apollo at work. The Apollinian ecstasy is an outing from oneself: the soul gives up the body and, freed, it traveled outside. That is attested by Aristeas, and it is said of his soul that it flew. To Abaris, on the other hand, is ascribed the arrow, transparent symbol of Apollo, and Plato refers to his magic spells. We can conjecture they really lived.

But once again, dear reader, as Lucan says it so well in the first book of his Pharsalia, to you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know (verses 451 to 453).

Mound. We translate with mound the Gaelic word duma but it means perhaps quite simply “heights” like in the case of the name of the county of the center of France having the name: Puy de Dôme. What is besides perhaps also a pleonasm. See also the Latin formula Mercurius dumiatis = Lug of the mound.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 14.

CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS ABOUT THE CELTIC WOMAN.

The account that we are reviewing shows quite a strange idea of marriage and woman. Is this due to the Christianization of the account??? To the imagination of his authors??? It is up to our readers to make themselves their idea but while especially not forgetting that all this is only some former druidism, not some druidism for today.

THE STATUS OF THE CELTIC WOMAN ACCORDING TO THE GREAT FRENCH SPECIALIST IN IRISH LITERATURE WHICH IS D’ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE.

In Ireland the married woman did not enter as in Rome the family of her husband. When her husband was killed, she has no right to compensation for a murder she could not avenge. If she was remarried, it was with her family and not with that of her husband that she shared the price of her sale to her second husband. From there resulted, for the married woman, a certain independence of which an example is given to us by Medb, queen of Connaught, the famous keen enemy of the Hesus Cuchulainn (see our Bible of druidism).

The technical term of the Irish law to designate the wife herself is cétmuinter. She is opposed to the concubine, literally “woman of contract,” ben urnadma. She must have the same fortune and the same birth that her husband; she and her children can cancel disadvantageous contracts made by the husband without she was agreeing to it. When she did not give to her husband legitimate cause of divorce and that this one buys another wife, the purchase price consequently belongs to the first wife,at the expense of the second wife and of her parents. The second wife owes the price of honor to the first one, and the first marriage is dissolved; the husband who reconciles with his first wife owes her a new purchase price.

The legend of saint Brigit gives us a characteristic example of the right of this cétmunter or legitimate wife, in Ireland. The druid Dubthach , who had a legitimate wife, bought a woman slave, made her his concubine and made her pregnant; the legitimate wife threatened Dubthach with divorce; but while divorcing, she was to keep the dower that her husband had given her; so after a long resistance, the druid ended up selling his concubine to another master.

D’Arbois de Jubainville wrote strange things about the Celtic woman.

“Ideal makes greatness of peoples, and Celts have of the married woman an ideal equivalent to those which Greece and Rome offer during antiquity. This ideal is missing among the Semites ,as well as the Roman Vestal virgin .”

The distinction that the Graeco-Roman world makes between free woman and woman slave, gives to the first one a self-respect the Semitic woman did not experience during antiquity. We can compare on this subject two equally legendary stories, one Roman, the other Jew.

Here the Roman tale (according to the pseudo-Plutarch and his Parallela Minora ): “ When Atepomarus, king of the Celts , was at war with the Romans, he said he would never retire unless the Romans should surrender their wives for intercourse. But the Romans, on the advice of their maidservants, sent slave women; and the barbarians, exhausted by unremitting intercourse, fell asleep. Rhetana (for she had been the author of this advice), by taking hold of a wild fig tree, climbed upon the wall and informed the consuls. The Romans attacked and conquered. From this the Servants' Festival takes its name. So Aristeides the Milesian in the first book of his Italian History .”

N.B. The biblical story is that of Judith. D’Arbois de Jubainville does not seem to appreciate her….

In Ireland the wife had the right to divorce in the event of infidelity of her husband. We are there opposite the status of the wife in Islamic religion (see the problem of repudiation, which is not a divorce).

The divorce by mutual consent was also licit, whatever says the Irish Church's canon law which, initially, allowed the divorce to the husband due to adultery of the wife, and which then prohibited divorce even due to adultery. This last rule is that which entered the “Irish canonical Collection,” where it is placed under the patronage of St Patrick, although, according to another document, he had supported the first system. The Canonical Collection expresses as follows: “Patrick said: If the wife of somebody sinned with another man, let the husband does not marry another woman, as long as the first one lives.

In Ireland, the legitimate wife - we do not speak about concubine - was in general lacking legal capacity to contract validly without the assent of her husband; but this rule comprised exceptions: when the two spouses had same wealth, comtincur, the wife validly made, as for her personal wealth , any advantageous contract; the assent of her husband was necessary only for disadvantageous contracts and the wife had by reciprocity the right to require the cancellation of disadvantageous contracts made by her husband on his fortune to him.

The Irish legal texts that we have, show the women having legal capacity to act by the seizure of goods or the seizure of property. A special procedure exists for their use: it is perfectly distinct from the procedure the men follow to practice either the seizure of goods or the seizure of property. Two texts claim even to teach us by whom this female procedure was invented.

In short, the situation of the married women in Ireland, such as the oldest documents make us know it, is approximately the same as in Rome at the end of the Republic and during the Empire. The wives are independent of their husbands and have the right to divorce. A husband who would have killed his wife would owe to her family the compensation due for a murder.

We therefore find generally in Celtic law - in addition to the use to buy the women, which was Greek, Roman, Germanic, Indo-European, we can even say universal - two matrimonial habits, that of the dowry, in Latin dos, Irish tinol, Welsh agweddy, the other, Germanic, that of the dower, in German morgen-gabe, Irish tinnscra, Welsh cowyll, Breton enebarz.

According to Tacitus, the Germanic ones knew only the dower: “The wife does not bring the dowry” to the husband,” the Roman historian wrote, “it is the husband who offers it to her wife.”

However we would be wrong to conclude from it that among the Germanics the use of the dowry given by the parents of the wife and brought by this one was absolutely unknown.

Undoubtedly, among the Germanic tribes, the dower had a great importance; it could include a certain number of horses, cattle heads, even slaves, and, when the real estate, was established , it could consist of real estates.

In the law of the continental Celts during Caesar’s time, the dower and the dowry were of equal value. The continental Celtic use regarding this point held the middle between the Germanic habit which exaggerated the importance of the dower and the Graeco-Roman law which did not know the dower and which gave to the dowry a function of which Germanic peoples have no idea. In the Celtica of the time of conquest, the dowry and the dower formed a whole allocated to the survivor of the two spouses according to a passage of the Comments by Caesar: “ Whatever sums of money the husbands have received in the name of dowry from their wives, making an estimate of it, they add the same amount out of their own estates. An account is kept of all this money conjointly, and the profits are laid by whichever of them shall have survived [the other]; to that one the portion of both reverts together with the profits of the previous time.”

These values consisted of cattle, and the profits of which Caesar speaks were the young of animals

DOWRY AND DOWER.

From Ireland, let us return to the Continent during Caesar’s time. The Comments give us, about the marriage, two contradictory indications. First is relating to the settlement of the goods. The women bring a dowry, dos, the Latin author says. It is what is called in Irish tinol, literally “collection” i.e., the whole of the gifts made to the bride by her father, her mother and her other parents.

With this dowry, at Caesar’s time, are joined together goods of the husband for an equal value it is the dower, in Irish tinnscra, which, for people without fortune, could consist simply of a silver ring

accompanied by some household utensils, but which, among rich people, were more important. In the beginning, all dowers or tinnscra a little considerable had to be a herd. Later, a tinnscra could be a real estate.

The Roman law does not know dower: in Roman law the husband receives a dowry and does not give any; an Irish scientist of the eleventh century, which had studied Roman law, thought that the dower, tinnscra, was an unknown use of the whole world, except Ireland and therefore invented on this subject an incredible story of which the conclusion was, of course: “For this reason the men buy and will always buy their wives in Ireland, while everywhere else they are women who buy men.”

We also find dower in the laws of Wales, where it is called cowyll.

The Welsh law indeed distinguishes, when it is a question of the marriage, three sums to be paid:

1° the purchase price of the wife, gober, gobyr, or amober, amobor, amobyr, Latin merces; it is the coibche of Irishmen;

2° the dower, coguyll, couyll, cowyll, in Irish tinnscra;

3° the dowry, aguedy, agweddy, in Irish tinol.

“There is,” a legal text says, “three shames for a daughter: the first when her father says to her: my daughter, I gave you to a man; the second when for the first time she goes to bed with her husband; the third when, outgoing of the bed, she finds herself in the middle of people.

For the first time her amobyr is given to her father, for the second time her cowyll is given to herself , for the third time the father gives the agweddy of his daughter to her husband.”

The cowyll or dower , given by the husband like the Germanic morgengabe, is the price of the virginity of the wife. But, in the Celtic use, it is paid before the first night, instead of being paid after like among the Germanic peoples. Among Welshmen, the agweddy or the dowry appears to have been, generally, triple of the dower, and, in addition to the dowry given by the family of the wife to the husband, the wife could, in Wales during the Middle Ages, on the continent during the Roman empire, to receive from her family some paraphernalia called by the Roman jurists peculium, by the Welsh argyvreu. The dowry was distinct from paraphernalia.

Could the Celtic wife, at Caesar’s time, have paraphernalia? It is what we cannot maintain, but it is certain that she had some of them at least sometimes in Great Britain before the Roman conquest. Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes, i.e., of the surroundings of York, in England, held her kingdom as paraphernalia in the middle of the first century; she had married one of her subjects named Venutius, great warrior, but she was a queen and he was not king. She dismissed him, replaced him by Vellocatus, squire of this scorned husband, but kept her kingdom by associating her new husband with her kingship.

Cartismandua was, of course, the daughter of a king of Brigantes who, like later Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had not left sons. She had inherited the kingdom of her father like, later, the daughters of Prasutagus claimed to inherit the kingdom of this one, and her husband had compared with her the subordinate status the wives have in ordinary households. But it is there an exception on which it is useless to enlarge more.

Among Bretons, during the first century of our era before the Roman conquest, women could very well inherit in the absence of sons and, consequently, to have a fortune more considerable than their husband. In this case, it was they who probably had the authority in the household, like that occurs in the Irish law of the Middle Ages in such a case, i.e., when there is “marriage of a man living on the property of the wife (lánamnas fir for bantinchur),” the legal text says, “and that consequently the man takes the place of the woman and the woman takes the place of the man.”

Caesar writes that the husband has the power of life and death over his wife. But the help to the survival that guaranteed to the husband as to the wife the institution of dower, also mentioned by Caesar, is not reconcilable with the right of the husband to kill his wife when he wants. This right the husband had it over the concubine, without a dowry, generally his slave; we must recognize concubines of lower status in these wives, uxores who, according to Caesar, are subjected to torture by the parents of the husband when one of them is suspected of having made the late husband die. The husband who would have killed his legitimate wife would have owed the murder compensation , like later in Ireland the king of Leinster mentioned in connection with the institution of the Boroma.

The husband has only the power of life and death over the slave who is used as a concubine for him, this slave is his thing, she is not a person; but as for the legitimate wife, in Gaelic language cetmuinter,

equivalent to the Roman materfamilias, if the husband kills her, the family of his wife will avenge this murder.

THE STATUS OF THE CELTIC WOMAN ACCORDING TO ALBERT BAYET.

The pleasant legend of the foundation of Marseilles, the gesture of the daughter of the king holding the bridal cup to the unknown immigrant, made some historians say the Celtic women are very free in the choice of their husband. But, initially, Gyptis is the daughter of a Celto-Ligurian king; and then, Greeks had interest to arrange a legend which was flattering for them.

One sometimes wondered whether the women also played a part in the political life. A famous text of Plutarch invites us to believe it: “ Before the Celts crossed over the Alps and settled in that part of Italy which is now their home, a dire and persistent factional discord broke out among them which went on and on to the point of civil war. The women, however, put themselves between the armed forces, and, taking up the controversies, arbitrated and decided them with such irreproachable fairness that a wondrous friendship of all towards all was brought about between both tribes states and families. As a result of this, they continued to consult with the women in regard to war and peace, and to decide through them any disputed matters in their relations with their allies. In their treaty with Hannibal they wrote the provision that, if the Celts complained against the Carthaginians, the governors and generals of the Carthaginians in Spain should be the judges; and if the Carthaginians complained against the Celts, the judges should be the Celtic women.”

The same story is found in Polyaenus, who declares in terms even more general than "Ever since then, throughout the towns and villages of the Celts, whenever there is a debate about peace, or war, concerning either themselves or their allies, the women are always consulted.”

The only fact that one can quote in support of this habit is that which the same Polyaenus reports: Brennos, before undertaking the campaign of Greece would have gathered a great assembly made up of men and women.

Admitting that the legend seized an unexpected trait to make it bigger, the fact remains that at a given time and among certain Celtic peoples, women could have been taken as arbitrators in political matters.

DOWRY AND DOWER.

A very often quoted text, show they were concerned with guaranteeing private means to widows: “Whatever values the husbands have received in the name of dowry from their wives, making an estimate of it, they add the same amount out of their own estates. An account is kept of all this money conjointly, and the profits are laid by( fructusque seruantur) : whichever of them shall have survived [the other]; to that one the portion of both reverts together with the profits of the previous time (cum fructibus superiorum temporum) ”.

This text is the subject of a controversy which lasts since the 16th century. But, what we think of these problems, a point is out of doubt: the widow will receive her dowry, a sum equal to this dowry and some fructus produced by this whole. Nothing proves that, in her husband’s lifetime, she is a joint owner of this whole and that we can, for this reason, to regard her as the equal and the partner of her husband. But it is certain that shortly after the death of her husband, the estate is a debtor of the sum indicated by Caesar and that the surviving wife is personally owner of it, like would be the husband himself if it were the wife who disappeared.

Such an institution has for obvious result to give to the widowed wife material safety and, through that, some independence.

A widow can remarry. The thing is licit and does not offend the common consciousness. In the tale of Plutarch, Sinatos finds totally natural to marry Camma become widowed; and Camma, which seeks by all means to avoid this union of which she was horrified, does not think even of pleading that a second marriage is an unpleasant thing. The mother of Dumnorix marries three times and it does not seem that her influence is decreased by that.

Perhaps widows are freer than maidens in the choice of a husband: in the story of Camma, we see the parents of our heroine to exert on her a violent pressure to force her to accept Sinatos but it does not

appear that one of these parents has the right to give her a strict order. Caesar says indeed of the Haeduan Dumnorix that he chose himself the third husband of his mother: matrem conlocasse, and that could initially make us believe that the widow falls down under the manus of her son. But, in fact, if it were thus, it would not be Dumnorix, but well Diviciacos who would make the marriage: because it is the elder one, and it is him who made to Dumnorix his situation. When Caesar says that Dumnorix “marries his mother,” it should simply be understood therefore that he uses his influence to make her contract a useful alliance. The fact that she takes his advice proves that she is with him, from the political point of view, against Diviciacos: it proves by no means that she is compelled to obey.

Faithfulness is, of course, a duty for the wife. In the story of Herippe, a Celt is indignant to see his prisoner preferring him to the husband who wants to repurchase her, and, in his indignation, he kills the unfaithful wife. Among Galatians, Chiomara, wife of Ortiagon, is raped by a Roman centurion who took her along as a prisoner. She makes the centurion killed, wraps the head cut off in a fold of her dress and throws it before her husband: “Wife, he said to her, faithfulness is a noble thing “"Yous," she says, "but it is a nobler thing that only one man is alive who has been intimate with me."

Plutarch, who tells this story, adds that Polybius reports having seen Chiomara and having spoken with her.

Lastly, the famous Camma remains faithful to her dead husband and likes better to perish herself than to marry the man who, by love, made her a widow.

Editor’s note. It goes without saying that all this in any event relates only to former druidism, and that new druidism has nothing to do with these quarrels between the Ancients and the Moderns. Most complete equality or parity must prevail between men and women, except for specific cases (motherhood, etc.).

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There it was that Mabon/Maponos/Oengus said, welcome, Etanna poor lost soul, you that has encountered great dangers through the curses of Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) and….

A passage not easy to translate follows.

Mabon/Maponos/Oengus made his ward, that is, the purple fly, and gathered her in his bosom in the fleece of his cloak. He brought her to his house and his solarium (grianan) with its bright windows for passing out and in, and purple raiment was put on her; wheresoever he went that solarium (grianan) was carried by Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, and there he used to sleep every night by her side, comforting her, until her gladness and color came to her again. This solar chamber (grianan) was filled with fragrant and wondrous herbs and she throve on the fragrance and bloom of all that heap of rare herbs.

Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) was told of the love and honor that was bestowed by Mabon/Maponos/Oengus on Etanna. Said Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) to Medros/Midir : ‘Let your fosterling be summoned that I may make peace between you both, while I myself go in quest of Etanna for you.’

A messenger comes to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus from Medros/Midir, and he went to speak to him. Meanwhile Vocumnaca (Fuamnach) came by a circuitous way until she was in the house of the Brug, and she sent the same blast on Etanna, which carried her out of her solarium (grianan) on the very flight she had been before for the space of seven years throughout the country. The blast of wind drove her along in misery and weakness until she alit on the roof-tree of a house in the kingdom of Ulidia where folk were drinking, and she fell into the golden beaker that was before the wife of Etar, the lord of Inber Cíchmaine, so that she swallowed her with the liquid that was in the beaker. In this wise she was conceived in her womb and became afterwards like her daughter.She was called Etanna daughter of Etar. N.B. Now it was a thousand and twelve years from the first begetting of Etanna by Dichu until her new begetting by Etar.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 15.

Solarium grianan. If this term designates the central chamber of the mound of Newgrange (Brug na Boinne) then it is a little exaggerated even if it is true that each year (according to the observation of Norman Lockyour in 1909), on the day of the winter solstice (on December 21st), at 9:17 in the morning the sun directly enters the central room during about 15 minutes. The precision in the orientation of the building is therefore spectacular. The objective of the building seems to have been “awaking” the ancestors, the important characters whose bodies were laid down in the central funerary chamber. It is, of course, rather difficult to believe, like the text seems to say it (but it is perhaps a mistranslation on our behalf) that Mabon/Maponos/Oengus could move with him such a monumental construction. Let us insist nevertheless on the fact that this type of monument is neither Celtic nor druidic, but pre-Celtic and pre-druidic. Celts and druids did nothing but recover them after being arrived on the spot. There exists besides many examples in the world of such a recovery, positive, moreover, without any will of denigration (what changes us of Christianity) by the Celtic-druidic collective imagination. See among others the case in Brittany of the alignments in Carnac, Stonehenge, the Extersteine in Germany, etc.

Former druidism was perhaps aniconic in the beginning but it was never iconoclastic like certain currents of Christianity or Islam.

I myself go in quest of Etanna for you. There Vocumnaca ceases behaving as a simply jealous and ridiculed legitimate wife to act in a criminal way stirred by the only desire to avenge herself.

Etanna daughter of Etar. It is therefore a case of conception without preliminary sexual relation. And even more precisely a conception by oral way like in the case of the Hesus Cuchulainn. At least in the legend. Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), like some other reptiles, are able to reproduce naturally by parthenogenesis.

On the other hand, the human parthenogenesis without being completely impossible is undoubtedly extremely rare. More than one allusion to this type of biological phenomenon it is rather a recollection of the early times when human beings have not established yet the link between pregnancy and sexual relations.

Now it was a thousand and twelve years from the first begetting of Etanna by Dichu until her new begetting by Etar.

It is important to begin to define some terms beforehand.

REINCARNATION : GENERAL STATE OF THE PROBLEM.

Metamorphosis. Etymologically, metamorphosis means change of shape, transformation of the shape. Thus tadpoles become as frogs, caterpillars as butterflies. It is undoubtedly a phenomenon of this type, combined with the notion of an instantaneous generation, which inspired the legend of Etanna.

Metensomatosis. Word made up of 2 Greek terms, meta (passage or transformation) and soma (body). The emphasis is put on the body in this concept: it changes. The inevitable consequence of this theory is nevertheless that something, wave, impulse or kinetic energy (like Buddhists would say), which changes of body or which goes from a body to another, remains the same one. This “transition “can be done from a human body to a human body, to an animal or vegetable body and vice versa.

Metempsychosis. Word made up of two Greek terms, meta (passage or transformation) and psychè (soul). In this notion the emphasis is put on something, wave, impulses or kinetic energy (as would say the Buddhists) which is called now soul in the Christianized West. This small “something” can successively animate several bodies, human, animal or even vegetable while remaining the same one.

Reincarnation. A recent term, means rebirth, the fact for something small, wave, impulse or kinetic energy, which is called soul or spirit, to animate the same body for the second time or to enter another

body straightforwardly. In the western world, reincarnation is designed exclusively as a rebirth in a human body only.

Various cases can occur.

Reincarnation in the same body before death (after shamanistic experiments of the exit of the soul or mind,other possible explanation of Etanna’s legend) reincarnation in the same body after death but in another (variant: the same thing but with a slightly different body, regenerated, see the notion of xvarnah in the ancient Iranian spirituality, Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos), reincarnation before death in a completely different body but still in this lowly world.

Transmigration of the soul is the theory according to which souls go from a body to another. The soul changes of body or reappears in another body, and this after death. This concept includes metensomatosis,metempsychosis and reincarnation.

Bacuceaction. Reincarnation of the pair soul/mind (anamone/menman) in an unsuited human body (that of a bacuceus).

It is advisable to point out here that, just as for Hinduism even Buddhism, reincarnation is generally not a suscetlon (good news) in former druidism which precisely proposes several ways to escape this literally infernal cycle.

For a Hindu also reincarnation is a “woe.” He hopes to be able to lose himself one day in the great soul of the universe following the phenomenon called moksha or salvation. To reach this point of no return or moksha (fusion in the melting pot of the Brahman or universal cosmic soul), Hinduism suggests to its faithful some possible ways, and this according to the own nature of each individual. The one who is appealed more by the knowledge and the meditation will be interested in Jnana-Yoga, the one who is appealed more by action will practice Karma-Yoga; the one who is inclined to love and devotion will embrace Bhakti-Yoga. The ultimate goal remaining to break the chain carma-samsara and to reach the moksha by fusing in the cosmic soul or in the Big Whole (Brahman).

What was said about Hinduism is also worth for Buddhism with the only difference that Buddhism does not admit the existence of individual soul , which is for it only a small something, a wave of kinetic energy, a wave on the water surface, an impulse which makes that a life rises from the previous one.

And that if you are in the Mahayana, reincarnation for a great initiate or semnotheus (Boddhisattva), can be an opportunity to come to assistance to the world in danger. There is then a refusal to enter the Big Whole of the cosmic soul renamed nirvana in this case, and this for the greatest good of Mankind. However this view is not shared by the Hinayana, the Buddhist Branch which also claims to be genuine.

In addition, Buddhists think that you can also be reincarnated even in an animal or demonic beings.

True druidism, as for it, like Hinduism or Buddhism according Schools, propose ways having as goals to escape the reincarnation called in this case by it “bacuceaction” or “change into bacuceos”. This Celtic word is used by Abbot Serenus according to St John Cassian * in his seventh conference (chapter 32) on the subject.

The first conference of the Abbot Serenus on the inconsistency of soul and (spiritual) wickedness.

Chapter 32. Of the different desires and wishes which exist in the powers of the air.

"Others we find affect the souls of those whom they have seized with empty hubris ( et quos etiam bacuceos vulgus appellat, and these are commonly called Bacucei) so that they stretch themselves up beyond their proper height and at one time puff themselves up with arrogance and pomposity, and at another time condescend in an ordinary and bland manner, to a state of calmness and affability: and as they fancy that they are great people and the wonder of everybody, at one time show by bowing their body that they are worshiping higher powers, while at another time they think that they are worshiped by others.”

In short, it is therefore obviously wrongly that today reincarnation in this world is viewed as a luck or a new possibility, a step ahead, by some neo-druids, being based on the works of the French druid Allan KARDEC (1804-1869) for whom“to be born, die, reappear and progress unceasingly is the law” or of Leon DENIS (1846-1927). This theory is based on the axiom of a quite optimistic progression without punitive relapse. What to do with Stalin Hitler or Pol Pot in Kampuchea in this case?? Yet according to DENIS “They are the same beings who, after a rest period in space, come back over centuries , until they are ripe for a better society, for a more beautiful world.”

Without sinking in the absolute pessimism let us point out nevertheless that our world is, on the one hand, what nature is with its phenomena like rain, cataclysms, earthquakes, etc., and, on the other hand, what we are, namely neither angels nor beasts, but some humans, therefore with the “typically human baseness” which necessarily go with human status.

Such cases of reincarnation (bacuceaction) are therefore extremely rare according to former druidism considering the effectiveness of his methods to be reincarnated in another world of heavenly type while waiting for the final dissolution in the Big Whole of the pair anamone/menman (soul/mind), by beginning with menman besides. A score of individuals per generation to take over the figure on which Ian Stevenson worked?

Bernhardt Oscar-Ernst known as Abd-Ru-Shin in his Grail message provided an interesting interpretation of the notion of karmic bran presiding over these cases of bacuceaction (or of reincarnation in the other world ….Failed!)

The karmic bran that each one carries in oneself and which appears as an arbitrary predestination is in fact only the inevitable consequence of one’s past, insofar as this one were not untied yet by poetic justice. Thus, no need to point out that “man works himself continuously his future life. He provides the threads and thus determines the color and the model of the clothing that the loom of the auxiliaries of the supreme Fate thanks to the law of poetic justice or of reciprocity of the effects, makes for him.”

Abd-Ru-Shin supports the thesis according to which the true beginning of the existence of a human being is always good, because he is blocked by no “thread of destiny.”

However, because of the will of the human being, “these threads of destiny” emanating from itself will enter the world of subtle matter. Thus “by the attraction force of affinities, these threads of destiny will along the way continuously strengthened, they will cross other threads, will mingle with them and will act retroactively on their author to whom they had remained bound, determining thus their destiny or bran. He is not tied up as it is said a little vulgarly.

When the human being decides to act, and this by the practice of his will, each “thread of destiny” takes a shape of subtle matter ( karmic bran). So the aforementioned thread will remain fixed in him. This enables us to understand why the retroactive effects of the “threads of destiny” form “the destiny of each human being, destiny which therefore he made himself and to which he is subjected.

However it is important to emphasize that for ancient druidism and as the case of the Hesus Cuchulainn shows it, each ordeal did not have necessarily as cause a (karmic) bran.

And ultimately it doesn’t matter to know if an ordeal has indeed as cause any karmic bran or not. When it occurs to us, rather than to speculate about its origin, it is much better to face it body and soul, with the inner conviction it can be overcome. In this manner, we make it an experiment useful to our spiritual evolution. From this point of view Abd-RuShin is not mistaken by maintaining that “to have a meaning , life on earth must be really lived” because it is well the conclusion which can be drawn from an attentive study of the legends surrounding the life of the Hesus Cuchulainn. Because they are not really the beliefs or the convictions of each one which matter in this field, but the efforts he makes to better oneself and act as must do a hero deserving this name in order to reach the total or relative perfection and to do so that his soul succeeds in being molten definitively in the Universal Soul in order to remain in it “as a conscious agent of the Divinity , aware of itself and of its perfection state.”

The Skeptics in Canada point out this idea of systematic reincarnation is not compatible with the fact that the world population could grow, that this idea is compatible only with a constant world population or having always been in the decrease process. In other words, we have much more births than

deaths and we should therefore have a deficiency “of souls.” Logically, in this theory, you must therefore accept the reincarnation of an entity in several bodies at the same time, in other words, its split. Or then it should be supposed that it can exist on earth bodies without a soul inside, some kinds of “zombies” without any personality. To say that “ they are the same beings who, after a rest period in space, come back through centuries ” and also to maintain that there are "souls external to Earth who come, for the first time, to be embodied there in some bodies,” is an intellectual and skillful evasion.

The accounts of Pythagoras, Empedocles, etc. come underthe ipse dixit category (himself told it and nobody can say anything other) moreover even in their time opponents existed: Heraclitus, Xenophanes of Colophon, Epicurus…

The works of the Doctor Ian STEVENSON now.

Ian Stevenson is a researcher who wrote much but his book entitled "Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation" does not resist criticisms. Stevenson, who did not know the language and the culture of the country where he was, was not in a position to assess the reliability of the questions asked by his interpreter.

The intelligence is only a rider perched on the back of a horse who can bolt. What quite a poor small thing that intelligence. Even the great minds have their blind spot or their Mariotte’s spot (to take over the name of the French scientist who discovered this phenomenon affecting eyes). That is particularly true with regard to the political, sociological, religious, fields. Best minds have, of course, a remarkable intellect even boggling by definition but in certain fields this intelligence is at neutral, it works no longer, it is forestalled , or is used for nothing (see for example in the debates racism anti-racism and vice versa). Intelligent people believe odd things because they are very gifted to defend the beliefs at which they arrived personally… for reasons having nothing to do with intelligence. Stevenson spent approximately half of his life in trying to support his faith in reincarnation and its relationship to medicine. His beliefs came in first, and he subordinated his intelligence to it. Such a situation does not have anything single. It is indeed the question we can ask ourselves also in front of some of our kind who, either in policy or in sociology in anthropology or in connection with God, support obvious nonsense, in spite of the evidence that they give of their intelligence apart from these subjects.

Let us point out lastly to finish that the feeling of déjà vu (paramnesia) supposed proving reincarnation is in fact only a dysfunction of brain and more precisely of memory.

But the big problem of the reincarnation in this world is that it makes us accept injustice. If you accept intellectually speaking the iron Law of the systematic reincarnation, it is necessary to continue the logic of absolute determinism until the end and to admit certain people are doomed to catch AIDS, to develop cancer, to lose their job,etc., that form in fact a punishment for the crimes of a previous life. Our opinion is it is not the best way of reacting facing the problem of evil, of suffering and of misfortune in this world . The current Western design of reincarnation is the evolution of the Ancient and Eastern idea. But, whereas former Druidism Hinduism Buddhism and Jainism consider reincarnation as a disaster or a failure- the goal of life being to be free from the infernal cycle of rebirths in this lowly world - much of neo-druids believe that reincarnation is desirable.

* It is difficult to know with certainty where was born Cassian. Perhaps in Provence quite simply since he died in Marseilles. In any case what is certain, it is the concept was taken over by Johannes Trithemius himself quoted by John Dee (quos veteres appellere bacuceos).

THIS IS AGAIN THE WOOING OF ETANNA.

(EGERTON MANUSCRIPT 1782: it is the introductory section of the text entitled in Gaelic language 'Togail Bruidne Da Derga, itself entitled, Scela Ailil 7 Etaine, the story of Ailill and Etanna.)

There was a noble and celebrated king reigning over Ireland Eochuig Aiream son of Finn son of Finntan son of Rogen Ruadh son of Essaman son of Blathecht son of Beothecht son of Labrad Lorcc son of Enna Aighnech son of Oengus Tuirbech of Temar son of Echad Aihlethan son of Ailell Casfiaclach son of Connla Cam son of Ires son of Melgh Molbthach son of Cobthach Cal Brig son of Lugad Mor son of Echad Buadach.

[The kings of the] five provinces of Green Erinn served Eochaid Airem : Cunocavaros/Conchobar son of Ness, the king of the province of Ulidia, Messgedhrai the king of Leinster, Curoi son of Daré king of Munster and Ailill and Medb in whose possession was the province of Connaught. There were two principal towns, in the land of Eochaid, to wit Dûn Fremain in Mide and Dûn Fremain in Tethba, and this was his good town in Tethba it was dear to him before all towns.

The first year after Eochaid had become chief king it was requested from him by the men of the country to celebrate the feast of Temruch so that they can come to see him and that their taxes and their tributes are adjusted???

But they also announced to him that they would not join for the feast of Temruch as long as the king of Geen Erinn would be without a wife proper for him. For there was not one good man of the men of Erinn without a proper wife and there was no king without a queen, for no man without a wife used to go to Temrach to the feast and no wife without a man.

Then Eochaid sent his horsemen his aballarios his atharraluig ??? as well as his frontier messengers from him through Erinn. They searched all the country in order to find a wife proper for him as to her form shape appearance and kindred. There was another thing with him that they should not bring a wife whom another man has possessed before. Afterwards his horsemen his aballarios his atharraluig ??? as well as his frontier messengers went away from him and searched through all Erinn south and north until they found at Inber Cichmuine a wife proper for him, to wit Etain the daughter of Etar king of Eochraide. Then his emissaries went back to meet King Eochaid and brought him the description of the maiden as to her form and shape and appearance. Then Eochaid went to see the maiden and he came through the green of Bri-Leith.

There he saw a maiden at the border of a well with a comb resplendent of silver ornamented with gold on her , she was washing herself from a basin of silver with four birds of gold on it, with little gems or carbuncles on the border. A caslechta? cloak of clear purple was round her a beautiful coat (folai?) with silvery brooches and a golden pin in the part located at the height of her breasts. Around her was a long hooded shirt (chulpatach) out of very fine green silk with embroideries of red gold and marvelous silver and gold ornaments at her breasts in the shirt , which thus gave to this green tunic the splendor of the gold shining in the sun.

She had two tresses fair like gold on her head and a weaving of four locks on both sides with a pearl of gold (mel) at the end of each one of them. The maiden was letting down her hair in order to wash it and both her arms left the holes of her shirt. Whiter than the fresh snow fallen into the night were both her hands and redder than purple foxglove of the mountains her two cheeks. She had a splendid and regular mouth with brilliant teeth like pearls. Bluer than hyacinth were both her eyes. Red and thin her lips. Both her shoulders were high as it should be, of a pleasant white. Her elbows well made also and of a pretty white. Her fingers were thin and of a pleasant white. She had beautiful pale red nails. Whiter than the snow or the froth of the wave were her slender sides, beautiful like those of a fairy??? (sidhumail). Her thighs were thin white and smooth. Her knees were well round, hard and white. Her legs were straight. Her feet small and white-skinned. Well proportioned also were her eyes????. Her two brows were like beetles, of a black-blue around her eyes.

This was the maiden the most handsome and fair that human eyes ever saw and it seemed to him that she must be from the sidh world. Hence the sayings: any beauty (cruth) seems Etanna, and every loved one (coem) it is also Etanna . Desire for her seized the king at once and he sent men of his

suite before him in order she to wait for him and afterwards the king addressed himself to the maiden and asked her : "Who are you, maiden, and from whence come you ?''

Not difficult to say, answered Etanna, I am the daughter of the king of Eochraide of the sidh world.

Shall we sleep tonight together, said Eochaid ?

This is what we are come for, to be placed in your safeguard , said the maiden. There are twenty years gone by since I was born in the sid and the men of the sid, kings as well as heroes, have been courting me but there was not obtained from me lying with a man because I cherished you and I got love and esteem for you since I was a child and since I was able to speak because of the account of your adventures and of your beauty and I never saw you before that but I recognized you after your description and it is for you I came.

I will bring you a genuine love on account of this, said Eochaid, you will find welcome, every woman will be left behind you and with you alone I will be as long as my honor is with you.

Buy me a suitable price (thinnscra coir) said the maiden and grants to me compensation (riar??) after this.

You wilL have it, said Eochaid.

There were brought seven cumal to her for her dower and he took her with him to Temur where all the men brought her welcome.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 16.

Son of Finn… bards were also paid to provide to their protective patrons genealogies more prestigious as those of their rivals, hence all these precise details of which historicity remains to be proven.

Their taxes and their tributes. We know by a variant of the legend preserved in the collection of manuscripts called book of the dun cow (Leabhar Na h-Uidhre) that it was for the five years coming.

These five-year periods or lustra seem to have been also frequent in life or calendar of ancient Celts. On the Continent, the culprits of crime considered as being particularly odious and who had not been able to pay the fine or the compensation planned for their case, for example were executed every five years, to calm down the god of avenging justice (Nodons/Noadatus/Nuada/Llud) or the guaranteeing gods of the (broken) oaths; the whole under the control of the druids who attended this funeral ceremonial (see our study on human sacrifices).

Aballarios. The Gaelic word used in the text is aobloire which means “the one who juggles with apples.” But it is also one of the first ranks of the druidic ollotouta. Perhaps should it be understood that king Eochaid also sends apprentice druids in an embassy.

Atharraluig. We do not know too much how to translate this Gaelic word. Worthless people ??? The idea undoubtedly is that Eochaid sends really the most of his people to part in the research.

Bri-Leith. What the mention of this residence of the sid comes to do here whereas action is supposed to happen at Inber Cichmuine? There would it have already mixing between different versions of this story??? In any case what is certain, it is there is no historical trace of Etar’s kingdom in this part of Ulster. At this stage of the story, Etanna seems well to be still an inhabitant of the Other World.

Of a black-blue around the eyes. Therefore, the doll used make-up.

I never saw you before that. We find here the favorite topic of the poets like the prince Jaufre Rudel of Blaye but reversed, that of the loves from afar (amor de lonh). Can we suppose that it is a topic of Celtic origin? The part played here by Etanna is very different from that of her previous adventures and seems rather a transfer of the usual stories about women from the other world, come on earth to meet a famous hero of whom they heard (for example the Hesus Cuchulainn). It will be retorted to me that angels are creatures who do not have sex. It is, however, not what the Bible says which tells us about angels of male gender having made children with the daughters of men (Genesis 6,1-8). So whom to believe? So what to believe? That it is one of the innumerable “stupidities” with which the Bible just like Quran besides is chock-full, these books which don’t contain more divine inspiration than the annotated recipe book of my grandmother the cooker of the castle of the counts. The book recording her recipes contains many remarks indeed that can be interpreted in a symbolic way by searching.

The cumal is a unit of account being equivalent to 5 heads of cattle of average value. Etanna is therefore bought 35 cattle heads.

Thinnscra, tinnscra. Gaelic word generally translated by dowry but it is nonsense . Tinnscra is not something given to husband but what the husband-to-be, gives the woman, in order to buy her body. Sorry ladies, romantic love is a rather recent middle-class invention. In former druidism, the man buys the woman, which is an attenuated form of prostitution.

It is necessary in this respect to well distinguish three things.

The purchase price of the woman, given to her father and the goal of which is to compensate the family for the loss of one of its pairs of arms, of one of its members, etc. Coibche.

The dower granted to the wife and which she will be able to enjoy in the event of widowhood (tinnscra). It is the price of the virginity of the wife, the price of her honor.

The dowry given to the woman by her family.

On the other hand, it is difficult to know to what the Gaelic word riar refers exactly.

" It is to the interest of the Society that women should have their dowries preserved, in order that they can marry again" [in the event of widowhood or of divorce]. Here what wrote in Rome, about the end of the second century of our era or in the beginning of the third one ,the famous jurist Paulus.

In Rome the woman who was a member of the high classes of society could usually find a husband only on the condition of paying him.

At the origin of history, we find established in all the branches of the Indo-European family the opposite system; it is not the woman who buys the husband, it is the husband who buys the woman.

When we see for example Clovis buying Clotilde a shilling and a penny following the use of Franks, we recognize there the modern regulation of a use that seems to date back to the very origins of mankind. But it is not a question of money paid for that in the text by Tacitus we quoted, and, among the objects that, according to this text, among the Germanic people of the year 100 of our era, the husband-to-be delivered to the parents of his wife as purchase price, cattle heads appear in the first place : it is the Greek use of Homeric times, the prettiest girls are those whose marriage brings most cows to their parents.

This Greek habit belongs to the period of civilization when the cattle serve as currency. Irish law belongs to the same period, what does not mean that Senchus Mor is chronologically contemporary of Homer; that means only that when the principles of the Irish law were established, Irishmen were at the same level of civilization as the Greeks of the Homeric time. Medieval Ireland has two monetary units: the cattle head, sét, and the female slave, cumal. The first owes its name to the same whole of ideas as Latin pecunia = pecu-inia, from pecu “cattle”; to this resemblance to primitive Latin, the Irishman joints another one: he buys his wife.

The word sanctioned by usage to designate this purchase is coibche. We find the term translated in Cormac’s Glossary. It means generally “purchase,” cendach, or, to use a more modern orthography, ceannachd. The translators of the Senchus Mor and of the book of Aicil made nonsense by conveying it with marriage gifts, wedding gifts. The selling price of the daughter belongs to her father when she gets married for the first time.

According to the translators, the last two words uaithese dosom “from herself to himself ” would mean that the wife would receive initially the price and would then give it to her father.

When the woman gets married a second time, the father received only two thirds of the price; with each new marriage, the share he could claim decreased, finally his right died out with the twenty-first marriage. In the absence of the father, the brother, household head, was entitled to half of what the father would have received.

What characterized Irish marriage and what distinguished the Irish wife from the primitive Roman or Germanic wife , it was the right she preserved on the fortune brought by her.

The Roman wife, through coemptio, fell in manu mariti, she ceased being an owner; the Germanic wife did not inherit, the male privilege excluded her from the paternal succession. Irish law shows to us a completely different system. The condition of the married woman depends on the fortune she brings.

In the event of equality of fortune on both sides, comtincur, in this case there are some contracts the husband cannot conclude without the assent of his wife, and, if there is a divorce, the wife takes back her contribution with a portion of the acquisitions determined by the law.

Another assumption is that of a wife who has nothing who lives off the goods of her husband; the rights of this wife are extremely reduced.

A third assumption is that when the husband having nothing, all the goods belong to his wife, it is then the wife who has the authority, and her husband is known as being a fer fognama, “serving man.” It can seem to exist at first glance a contradiction between this service of the husband living on the goods of his wife and the right that, by the purchase of her wife, the husband acquired on her. But this contradiction is only apparent. The right the husband got on the woman by the purchase (coibche) relates only to the body of the wife and the children to be born from this wife during the marriage but the wife, owner of goods, cannot confer to her husband more right that she has herself on these goods, and the principle of Irish law is that the real owner is the tribe or the family. The individual who holds a real property cannot validly sell it or, all the more reason to give it to a person being not a member of the tribe or the family, even to an adoptive son. Thus, the right that the matrimonial sale, coibche, makes the husband get, has as an aim the very person of the wife; not her fortune. The translation that we give of the word coibche, according to the Cormac’s Glossary, is therefore perfectly in agreement and with what we know of the primitive law of the Indo-European family and with the right specific to Ireland.

Postscript. We must always, of course, be inspired by the best of the past in order to build the future and therefore by the positive ideas that theorized the Celtic law as regards the interweaving of the men of the women and of the children in the social fabric but it goes without saying, is it necessary to point it out, that this excellent study by Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville is especially a study of what former druidism was, insofar as they are druids who tried to make the right is might and that, apart from these some rather positive ideas, all the rest should remain in our manners only in the state of symbols.

THE WOOING OF ETANNA VERSION I.

On a day it befell that Etanna and all the maidens were bathing in the estuary when they saw from the water a horseman entering the plain towards them. He was mounted on a broad brown steed, curveting and prancing, with curly mane and curly tail. Around him a green sidh-mantle (sidhalbrat) in folds, and a red-embroidered skirt . In his mantle was a golden brooch which reached to his shoulder on either side. A silver shield with a boss of gold thereon slung over his back. In his hand a five pronged spear with rings of gold round about it from haft to socket. Bright yellow hair he had reaching to his forehead. A headband of gold against his forehead so that his hair would not fall over his eyes. He halted a while on the bank gazing at Etanna and the maiden, and all the maidens loved him. Thereupon he uttered the following lay:

THE WOOING OF ETANNA/ETAIN AGAIN VERSION III.

O fair lady will you come with me

To the wondrous land wherein harmony is,

Hair is like the crown of the primrose there.

And the body smooth and white as snow.

There, is neither mine or your,

White are teeth there, dark the brows.

A delight of the eye the number of our hosts,

Every cheek there is of the hue of the foxglove.

A gillyflower is each one's neck,

A delight of the eye are blackbirds' eggs.

Though fair the prospect of the plain of Fal (the earth ?),

'tis desolate after frequenting Mag Mar.

Though choice you deem the ale of Fal’s island,

More intoxicating is the ale of the Great Land.

A wondrous land is the land I tell of;

Youth departs not there before old.

Warm sweet streams flow through the land,

There are choice mead and wine

Stately folk without blemish,

Conception without sin, without lust.

We see everyone on every side,

And no one sees us.

It is the darkness of Adam's transgression

That has prevented us from being counted ???

We see everyone on every side,

And no one sees us.

It is the darkness of Adam's transgression

That prevents us from being counted ???

O woman, if you come to my noble folk,

A crown of gold shall be upon your head

Honey, wine, ale, fresh milk, and drink,

You will have with me there, O Fair Lady (Be Find).

‘I will go with you,’ said Etanna, ‘if you obtain me from my husband, if you obtain me not, I will not go.’

THE WOOING OF ETANNA VERSION I.

This is Etanna here today

At the Síd of Ban Find west of Ailbe

Among little boys (macu ?) is she

On the brink of Inber Cíchmaine.

She it is who healed the king's eye

At the well of the lake Dá Líg:

She it is that was swallowed in a drink

From a beaker by Etar's wife.

Because of her the King will chase

The birds from Tethba

And drown his two steeds

In the pool of the lake Dá Airbrech.

Full many a war will be

On Eochaid of Midhe because of you:

There will be destruction of sid (elfmounds)

And battle against many thousands.

It is she that was sung of in the land;

It is she that strives to win the king;

It is she who is called Bé Find ( fair lady),

She is our Etanna afterwards.

The warrior departed from her after that and they knew not whence he had come or whither he had gone.

THE WOOING OF ETANNA/ETAIN AGAIN VERSION III.

On a lovely summer day Eochaid Airem king of Tara arose and climbed the rampart (tsosta) to gaze over the plain of Breg. It was radiant with bloom of every hue. As Eochaid looked round him, he saw a strange warrior on the rampart before him. A purple tunic about him, and golden-yellow hair on him to the edge of his shoulders. A shining blue eye in his head. A five-pointed spear in one hand, a white-bossed shield in the other, with precious stones thereon. Eochaid was silent, for he was unaware of his being on the premises the night before, and the doors of Tara had not been opened at that hour.

Thereupon he came up to Eochaid. Then Eochaid said : ‘Welcome to the warrior whom we do not know.’

‘Tis for that we have come,’ said the warrior.

‘We know you not,’ said Eochaid.

‘I know you, however,’ replied the warrior.

‘What is your name?’ said Eochaid.

‘Not famous,’ said he, ‘Medros/Midir of Brí Léith.’

‘What has brought you?’ said Eochaid.

‘To play tablut with you,’ said he.

‘Of a truth I am good at tablut ’ said Eochaid.

‘Then Let us make trial of it,’ said Medros/Midir.

‘The queen is asleep,’ said Eochaid, ‘and it is in her chamber that the tablut board is.’

‘I have here,’ said Medros/Midir, ‘a tablut board that is not inferior.’

And that was true: a silver board and golden pawns, and each corner thereof lit up by precious stone, with a bag for the pawns of plaited wires of bronze.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 17.

Headband. We translate so the Gaelic word snithi which, according to the electronic dictionary of the Irish language means spun, woven, twisted. A fillet in heraldry.

The darkness of Adam's transgression. Obvious forging of the oral literature text by ancient bards. Nice people call that an “interpolation.”

This is without any doubt a description of the heaven according to the druids.

Some reminders on this subject.

For the druids there is only heaven after death, with some exceptions : extremely rare cases of bacucaeaction or punishing reincarnation, of the kind few tens each generation. Points of reincarnation on earth: the double door exits of the anteroom of heaven that are places like Donno Tegia or Tech Duin, Anderodubno or Annwn, etc.

Just like there can be a few tens of cases each generation of voluntary reincarnation in order to come to the assistance of the other human beings remained on earth (great initiates or semnothes called Bodhisattvas in Buddhism).

Semnothes in fact is a Greek word meaning something like venerable and god, designating some great druidic initiates in some of their texts.

To refer to our previous counter-lays about these questions.

This heavenly other world is not a place but a state of being.

It is traditionally composed of several parts or states of being which interpenetrate, the world of the dead and the world of the gods. Hence the possibility for the deceased of seeing the gods there.

The soul and the mind of the dead , always initially joined, are reincarnated there in another body, which is the one of before their death, but regenerated (no ethereal survival or in a state of ghostly shade in druidic spirituality: the pair soul/mind survives the death but in a body of xvarnah would say the Persian Mazdaeans, or of glory the Christians would say, Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos). Hence all these descriptions.

There exist no longer private property since abundance prevails. Most of the fragments of legends which survived until us having been texts of oral literature intended for the warlike class, human beings with the temperament of a brawler, dreaming only of bumps and bruises (there are some of

them), get them abundantly (but death, of course, exists there no longer , or at least if they die it is to return to life at once afterwards. Example the magic pigs of Belin/Belen/Barinthus son of Lero/Lir, known as the Mannish (Manannan).

There are also fragments of all this flourishing oral literature of formerly obviously intended for human beings with let us say druidic disposition (study meditations worship of the gods: see the accounts of Plutarch about various islands).

Some descriptions ( some sermons?) intended for human beings coming rather under the third function or to comparable functions (overcome people, atectai) were also to exist in this case but there we have no longer something to scan.

In this parallel other-world of the heavenly type (Mag Mar, Mag Mell, Tir na n’Og, etc) ;) the mind of the deceased (menman) little by little will grow blurred (first stage of the individual aredengto, erdathe in Gaelic language).

Then it will be the turn of the soul or anamone itself, which, after its complete blossoming in this other world of the paradisiac type (buddhakshetra Buddhists say), will dissolve in the Big Whole of the universal cosmic soul (the second individual stage of the aredengto called moksha in Hinduism).

For more details refer to our lessons on the subject.

Pawns. It is therefore a Celtic chess of the tablut type called gwezboell or fidchell, and not chess like those of today.

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Thereupon Medros/Midir arranges the board.

‘Do you play ?’ said Medros/Midir.

‘I will not play save for a stake,’ said Eochaid.

‘What will the wager be?’ said Medros/Midir.

‘It is all one to me,’ said Eochaid.

‘You will have from me,’ said Medros/Midir, ‘if you win my stake, fifty dark gray steeds with dappled blood-red heads, pointed ears, broad-chested, with distended nostrils, slender limbs, mighty, keen [...] huge, swift, steady (shostaide), easily yoked, with their fifty enameled reins. They will be here at the hour of tierce tomorrow.’

Eochaid said the same to him. Thereupon they play. Medros/Midir's stake is taken. He goes off taking his tablutboard with him.

When Eochaid arose on the morrow, he came on to the covered way of Tara at sunrise, and he saw his opponent close by coming towards him along the covered way.He knew not whither he had gone or whence he had come, and he saw the fifty dark gray steeds with their enameled reins.

‘This is honorable,’ said Eochaid.

‘What is promised is due,’ Medros/Midir said.

‘Will we play again at tablut ?’ said Medros/Midir.

‘Willingly,’ said Eochaid, ‘so it be for a stake.’

‘You will have from me,’ said Medros/Midir, ‘fifty young boars,curly-mottled, gray-bellied, blue-backed, with horses hooves together with a vat of blackthorn into which they all will fit. Further, fifty gold-hilted swords, and again fifty red-eared cows with white red-eared calves and a bronze chain on each calf. Further, fifty gray wethers with red heads, three-headed, three-horned ???. Further, fifty ivory-hilted small swords. Further, fifty speckled cloaks, but each fifty of them on its own day only. Not the whole at once.’

Eochaid's steward ? questioned him, and asked him whence he had brought his great wealth. He said to him,

‘That is indeed fit to relate (?).’

‘Verily indeed, you must take heed of him; it is a man of magic power that has come to you, my son, lay heavy burdens on him.’

After that his opponent came to him, and King Eochaid laid upon him the famous great tasks, namely to clear the plain of Midé of stones, to put rushes over Tethba, a causeway over the bog of Lámraige, and a wood over Bréifne. Concerning which the poet uttered the following stanzas:

These are the four things

That Eochaid Airem imposed

On many a manly-visaged throng

With many a shield and spear:

A causeway over the bog of Lámraige

A wood over Bréifne (without difficulty)

A clearing of stones from the hillocks of great Meath

And rushes over Tethba.

These then are the pledges and the hardships that were imposed.

‘You lay too much upon me,’ said Medros/Midir.

‘I do not indeed,’ said Eochaid.

‘Then do you grant me a request and a boon. As far as you hold sway let no man or woman be out of doors until sunrise tomorrow.’

‘It will be done,’ said Eochaid. No one had ever trodden that bog before.

Then Eochaid commanded his steward to watch the effort they put forth in making the causeway. The steward went into the bog. It seemed to him as though all the men in the world from sunrise to sunset had come to the bog. They all made one mound of their clothes, and Medros/Midir went up on that mound. Into the bottom of the causeway, they kept putting a forest with its trunks and roots, Medros/Midir standing and urging on the host on every side. One would think that below him all the men of the world were raising a tumult.

After that, clay gravel and stones are placed upon the bog. Now until that night the men of Ireland used to put the strain on the foreheads of oxen, but it was seen then that the folk of the sidh were putting it on their shoulders. Eochaid did the same, hence he is called Eochaid Airem (i.e., plowman in Gaelic language), for he was the first of the men of Ireland to put the yoke upon the necks of oxen. These were the words that were on the lips of the host as they were making the causeway: ‘Coire a laim ??? Payment made to the bride, excellent oxen, in the hours after sundown; too hard is the request (ailges) none knows whose is the gain, whose the loss, from the causeway over the bog of Lámraige.’

There had been no better causeway in the world, had not a watch been set on them. Therefore defects (?) were left in them voluntarily.Thereafter the steward came to King Eochaid and brought tidings of the vast work he had witnessed : he said there was not on the earth a magic power (cumachtai) that surpassed it.

While they were speaking, they saw Medros/Midir coming towards them, his loins girt (?) and an evil look on him.

Eochaid was afraid, but bade him welcome.

‘Tis for that we have come,’ said Medros/Midir. ‘It is fierce and unreasonable of you to lay such hardship and infliction upon me. I would have worked something else to please you, but my mind is inflamed against you.’

‘You will not get wrath in return for your rage; your mind will be set at ease,’ said Eochaid.

‘It will be accepted then ! Will we play again at tablut?’ said Medros/Midir.

‘What will the stake be?’ said Eochaid.

‘The stake that either of us will wish,’ said Medros/Midir.

And that day Eochaid's stake is taken.

‘You have taken my stake,’ said Eochaid.

‘Had I wished I could have taken it before now,’ said Medros/Midir.

‘Now what would you from me?’ said Eochaid.

‘My arms around Etanna and a kiss from her,’ said Medros/Midir.

Eochaid was silent a minute.

‘Come a month from today and that will be given you.’

Medros/Midir made a tryst for a month from that day. But Eochaid mustered the flower of the warriors of Ireland to Tara, and the best of the war bands of Ireland, each encircling the other around Tara, in the midst, without and within , and the king and queen in the middle of the house, and the courts locked, for they knew that the man of great magic power would come. Etanna was serving the lords on that night, for the serving of drink was a special gift of hers.

Thereafter as they were speaking they saw Medros/Midir coming towards them in the midst of the royal house. He was fair at all times, but on that night he was fairer. The hosts were astonished.Then silence fell upon them, and the king bade him welcome. ‘

'Tis that we have come for,’ said Medros/Midir; ‘what has been pledged to me,let it be given to me. What is promised is due. What was promised, I have given you.’

‘I have not thought further of that until now,’ said Eochaid.

‘Etanna herself promised me that she would come away from you,’ said Medros/Midir.

Thereupon Etanna blushed.

‘Do not blush, O Etanna,’ said Medros/Midir. ‘It is not unwomanly for you. I have been a year, seeking you with gifts and treasures the most beautiful in Ireland, nor did I take you until I had Eochaid's leave. It is not through any betrayal ? I should win you?’

‘I have told you,’ said she, ‘that I will not go to you until Eochaid finishes with me . As for me, you may take me if Eochaid agrees.’

‘I will not sell you indeed,’ said Eochaid, ‘but let him put his arms round you in the middle of the house as you are.’

‘It will be done,’ said Medros/Midir. He takes his weapons in his left hand, and the woman he took under his right arm, then bore her away through the skylight of the house. The hosts rose up in shame around the king. All what they beheld it was two swans in flight round Tara and the way they went then was to Síd Ar Femuin. Eochaid went with the flower of the men of Ireland around him to Síd Ar Femuin, that is Síd Ban Find. And this was the counsel of the men of Ireland : to dig up every elf mound in Ireland until his wife should come thereout to him.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 18.

The hour of tierce. 9 o’clock.

Covered way. There existed various types of fortification in Ireland. Rath and lios were earthen ring forts ; the rath (old Celtic ratis) being the enclosing bank and the lios the open space within. The caiseal and cathair were stone ring forts. The word dun (old Celtic dunon), very frequent in French toponymy ( for example Verdun sur Garonne where I have formerly when I was young , worked, in arboriculture, as a seasonal worker in the pruning of fruit trees) was used for any fortress somewhat important, as it is or not of a circular plan.

In the case of a fortification of type “ratis” the covered ways were not "covered.”

Gold-hilted. The Gaelic language does not specify if it is the pommel the grip or the cross-guard, or the whole. Only the blade seems to be excluded since it is out of iron by definition.

Cumachta is a Gaelic word designating some magical powers of the gods or demons, or simply preternatural according to the electronic dictionary of the Irish language. The term preternatural is very specialized. For our readers who would not know it is a term of Catholic theology designating the powers of the original human being, before Adam has fallen. What is therefore amusing enough it is that the Edil consequently made the god or demon Medros/Midir an entity enjoying all the powers which Adam had, before the original sin. They are therefore natural powers, not supernatural, but that are explained no longer.

Below the definition of the word preternatural found on the web site “second Exodus” led by Martin K. Barrack.

Above the order of human nature.

The angels, both holy and fallen, have preternatural powers. Their intellect, speed, etc., are far greater than the corresponding human powers, but they are not infinite for as much.

Adam and Eve originally received the preternatural gifts of immortality, impassibility, freedom from concupiscence, innocence, with the lordship over the earth. If Adam had not sinned, we all would have

inherited these preternatural gifts, together with the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace (typically Catholic jargon).The souls in heaven will recover these gifts at the end of time.

N.B. All the theologists don’t agree, of course, on the list of the aforesaid supernatural powers.

To clear the plain of Midé of stones. All that resembles much the famous labors of Hercules. Imitation plagiarism or coincidence due to a common origin???

A causeway over the bog of Lámraige. Official history teaches us that the Romans built our road system and civilized our country. But new evidence, however, prompts another look at the question of what the Romans truly did for us. In 2009 archeologists indeed found close to Shrewsbury in Shropshire a cobbled road built 100 years before the invasion of the Romans. This road looked Roman until the radiocarbon-dating of its foundations.

The road was built in three phases with elder wood , silt and river cobbles.

Foundations are out of elder wood which dates back to the Iron Age according to the carbon dating.

The layer above is made of silt covered with river cobbles.

Caesar insists on the bridges he made build in order to cross the rivers where that was convenient for him but, sometimes, as absent-mindedness, he mentions already existing bridges. Bridges, therefore roads! But at no time Caesar complains about the network of roads. He could have done it, because to make legions followed by carriage of material move with sustained pace , supposes communication routes in a very good state.

1 legion = 4.500 men approximately. The normal rate of the legion in its displacements was 5 kilometers per hour, then 10 minutes of pause. This rate was kept during 5 to 7 hours per day. In the event of urgency, an accelerated rate of 7 kilometers per hour could be kept during several hours.

For information, 1 Roman mile (millia) = 1481,50 m (1 000 double Roman steps); 1 Celtic league (leuga) = 2 222,50 meters (1 500 double Roman steps ). Therefore the value of the legion step is approximately 0,74 meter, and 3 Roman miles are equivalent to 2 Celtic leagues (leuga).

Tabula Peutingeriana gives us however important information for example the fact that in the north of the country roads were measured in leagues. What means that if this land surveying survived Roman unit measurements, it is that it was already largely used and that there was a road network developed already well before the arrival of the Romans. Also let us add that many names of Roman vehicles are of Celtic origin, to begin with the never going out of fashion '' carrus '' but also carpentum, rheda or raeda, petorritum, cisium and capsum, which attests the know-how of the Celtic cartwright.

The yoke. It is an extremely strange detail. Some historians wonder if it is not a distant echo of the new methods brought to Neolithic peoples by Celts. New agricultural methods, plow with several oxen, construction of roadways with logs to cross certain zones, etc.

The use of draft animals generally requires the creation of a binding system, making the animal able to draw a load, without being wounded. The oldest system would be the horn yoke. In ancient Egypt, a beam out of wooden was placed before the horns of a bovid. Over time, the beam out of wooden is carved for better adapting to the morphology of animals and holes are realized to make leather bonds pass through it, thus making possible the pulling of the load. The yoke wrongly said "withers yoke" is the evolution of a head yoke which make use of animals without horns or of which the shape of the horns does not lend itself to the horn yoke, possible. It consists of a wooden beam placed on the shoulders, with a strap passing above them and pressing on the rib cage. On the rib cage, because in truth, harness never pressed on the withers themselves. Recent studies could solve the problem. No, Ancients did not preserve during centuries a defective technique! What appeared difficult to understand. The withers yoke make possible side movements of the head (possibility of driving out flies) and removes the rigidity or obliquely walk observed in the case of the horn or head yoke.

‘My arms around Etanna and a kiss from her.’ It is necessary to specify that it is precisely where the god or demon Medros/Midir demon wanted to come since the beginning, and that he had voluntarily lost the previous game of chess (tablut) in order to lure King Eochaid. N.B. We say “god-or-demon” because it is certain that in this episode Medros/Midir behaves a little like the devil in many medieval legends, with this difference that in Christian legends devil is always very stupid in the making of his bargains (in order to buy the souls) and he is always finally cheated by the saint or the good Christian or the Christian having, after, called upon the compassionate all-might of God.

Then he bore her away through the skylight of the house …. Let us say to simplify that Celtic gods or demons have the same powers as the fallen or not fallen besides, angels, of the Judeo-Islamic-Christianity, but that instead of obeying God they are subordinated to the Fate called Tocad (or Tocade if you want to feminize the word).

As we have had already the opportunity to see it, for the electronic dictionary of Irish language, powers of the gods (cumachta) are simply preternatural powers , i.e., the power which had Man before his fall and his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. What, of course, could not be, since man was not created by God contrarily to what mass monolatries which are Judaism Christianity and Islam repeat us.

But about these powers we therefore find here two others of them: the power of flying in the airs and the power to change oneself in a bird. Let us add there, of course, for Medros/Midir a not very common force and for Etanna a gift to serve the drinks (undoubtedly an old metaphor the meaning of which was lost).

No detailed study of what the term Gaelic cumachta means having been tried until that day; let us attempt nevertheless to say a few words of it.

In “polytheistic” religions, gods or demons have between them common features which make them at the same time close but also very above the men.

The body of the gods has qualities definitely higher than that of men: brightness, youth, perfect forms and so on. What the ancient Iranians called xvarnah, Celts bellissama/bellissamos, and Christians “glory.”

The powers ascribed to the gods, who are neither all-knowing nor almighty, are superhuman (speed, strength, invisibility, ability to fly), like are their size when they appear physically, and their brightness.

They created neither the universe nor the men we have said but like the latter, they are born, they have a birth, a beginning *, at least according to myths. They have a proper noun, own attributes, a bodily appearance and characteristic attitudes, a personal history with a civil status and adventures. They received, moreover, a multitude of religious epithets that specialists call epicleses in Greek language, varying according to the place of worship and the particular aspect of the god who is called upon.

These epicleses therefore inform about the very different functions a deity can have (iovantucarus = who likes youth for example, virotutis = who protects men, anextlomarus = protector, etc.).

But this multiplicity of aspects does not exclude a principle of unity; each god has indeed, his specific way of acting, his type of power, his reserved domains, in the main spheres of activity in which men request their assistance; if various gods intervene in the same sector of activity, their actions then do not become confused but are complementary.

Concurrently with these common features, gods have each distinctive and individualized feature which made possible their recognition.

We find again this variety in the way in which druids represented their gods. They knew all the forms of figuration: rough stones, stone pillars or wooden totems, masks, animal figures, human representations, and this, in extremely various materials: wood, stone, terra cotta, bronze… These forms do not mark a chronological evolution but coexisted and are treated with the same respect.

Let us mention by the way the great statue pertaining to worship representing Lug (Mercury in Roman interpretation) whose resemblance to a man was corrected by his dimension quite higher than the

human size. It was built by a Greek sculptor named Zenodorus who lived during Nero’s reign (ten years of work, price 4 million sesterces).

The preternatural powers of angels and of men we have said. But the powers of superheroes also form an excellent point of comparison.

In works of science fiction, a superpower is an extraordinary superhuman power.The superpowers can be bodily or mental. They can be gotten by the heroes in an innate way or to be acquired in a fortuitous way even at the end of a search. There are some heroes having a single power, others having a multitude of them.

The diversity of powers is large and also depends on the genres as of the cultures of which the heroes who enjoy them are members. That can be, for example, a phenomenal chance, a superhuman strength, a high speed, a gift of teleportation, a gift of telepathy, the ability to see during the night, to control various elements (water, earth, fire, wind, lightning…) to fly, to become a phantom. We can also quote a huge intelligence, an “animal” instinct, the ability to multiply that to be able to return the blows, to travel in time, the ability to be regenerated or to take a different shape.

Some powers got by superheroes can sometimes be apparently ridiculous: the fact of releasing a feeling reluctant odor, of being endowed with a very small size or of being able to swallow anything.

The excessive physical strength compared to an ordinary human being is a superpower frequently met.

It is not rare to see, in cartoons, some heroes carrying important loads (buses, pillar stones, etc.) or to break particularly resistant objects (armor-plated doors, strongboxes, wall, etc.). This power is often accompanied by a great resistance to the body attacks bare-handed , even to the firearms. To note that some heroes have a superhuman resistance without it extends to their clothing, what sometimes leads Colossus to finish a fight victorious and unscathed but almost naked .

Some fictional characters can move very quickly. Flash is able to move at an extraordinary speed ; Steve Austin, the six-million-dollar man , also has this ability thanks to electronic prostheses.

There exists some heroes able to fly, or to cross objects; Cyclops and Superman can as for them emit an energy beam from their eyes.

The gift of teleportation including through walls is sometimes given certain heroes. A character who has this gift generally can teleport himself from a place to another, but it is not the only form of this power we find. Teleportation in question can apply to someone else.

A power often combined with the “villains” is the power to regenerate oneself quickly.

Another recurring gift is that of metamorphosis, namely that to change one's aspect, that is to take one or more different appearances. Stanley Ipkiss/ The Mask can ad libitum change clothing and build, while keeping his green face.

There exist more complicated powers: Magneto can handle electromagnetic force fields (what enables him as well to deviate bullets as to threaten to remove the magnetosphere). Sebastian Shaw, always in X-Men, absorbs the energy of the blows that are dealt to him to become stronger.

Doomsday, if he is killed, comes back to life while being impossible to kill in the same way. Will, the hero of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising , can travel through time. William Dunbar (Code Lyoko) can become temporarily a flying and very fast black smoke.

Mental powers as for them are often attributed to characters not having an extraordinary build. One of the kinds of recurring powers is the control of elements, magnetic fields, telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, cryokinesis… and others.

Wonder Woman has various magic objects, of which a gold lasso forcing all those it binds to tell the truth and indestructible bracelets, just like the shield of Captain America.

Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask holds all his powers from a magic mask of Viking origin which, when he wears it, changes him into a green and wacky character having almost limitless powers, whereas it is only an ordinary human being in normal time.

Length and accessibility of the powers.

The super abilities of supermen are not inevitably always the same ones. They can evolve over time, and sometimes according to other factors.

Thus, Bruce Banner is changed into Hulk, an animal of great bodily strength, under the effect of anger. Anger increases his abilities besides.

Weaknesses and limitations.

Superheroes are endowed with superpowers, but it is not all. To balance characters, heroes often have a weak point. Kryptonite and prolonged exposure to red light make Superman vulnerable; Cyclops cannot do without his special glasses in ruby quartz; Benoit Brisefer loses his abilities when he has a cold; Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian suffer from pyrophobia, and lose their powers if they are exposed to fire; Iron Man is forced to permanently wear an electromagnet to survive because of pieces of shrapnel wedged in his chest.

In a more general way, the weaknesses of a superhero can lie in his nature, his personality. A weakness of Wolverine is to want to act alone , to refuse outside assistance. Tornado is, as for her, claustrophobic.

* On the other hand, they do not die (except in the documents influenced by Christianity) if it is not for coming back to life at once. Their true disappearance will be done only at the time of the general aredengto of universe (its end and its regeneration at the end of a cosmic cycle of an immense length….of which estimates made at the time by the druids seemed ridiculous in the eyes of the Greeks and of the Romans). Our Parsi brethren call this end of a cycle followed by a regeneration frashokereti and our Odinist brethren Ragnarok.

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They dug up the sid of Ban Find, and a certain person comes forth and told them that the woman was not there.

‘The king of the sids in Ireland, he is the man who came to you. He is in his royal stronghold with the young woman. Set out thither until you come to it.

’ They go northwards and they began to dig up the elf mound. They were a year and three months at it. What they would dig up one day would be mysteriously restored on the morrow. Two white ravens went forth from the sid to them, and there came two hounds, Scleth and Samair. They went south again to the sid of Ban Find and they began again to dig the elf mound. One comes forth to them and said to them : ‘What have you against us, O Eochaid? We have not taken your wife. No injury has been done you. Beware of saying something that may be an offense for a king.’

‘I will not go hence,’ said Eochaid, ‘till you tell me how I may attain my wife.’ ‘Take blind whelps with you, and blind cats, and leave them. That is the work you must do every day.’

They turn away, and that is done by them. And in this manner they set about it.

As they were there razing the sid of Brí Léith they beheld Medros/Midir coming towards them.

‘What have you against me?’ said Medros/Midir. ‘You do me wrong. You have put great tribulations upon me but you did sell your wife to me. Injure me no more !’

‘She will not be with you,’ said Eochaid.

‘She will not,’ said Medros/Midir. ‘Get your home, and your wife will reach you at the third hour tomorrow [... ?..] said Medros/Midir. ‘Injure me not again if I honor my pledge.’

‘I accept,’ said Eochaid.

Medros/Midir signed his covenants and departs from them.

And as they were there at the third hour on the morrow, they saw fifty women all of like form and raiment as Etanna. Silence fell on the hosts. There was a gray courtesan before them. She said to Eochaid : ‘Take again your wife now, or bid one of the women to abide with you. It is meet that we set out for home.’

‘What will you do instead of me,’ said Eochaid to the men of Ireland, ‘because of the doubt that has come upon us?’

‘We have no advice as to what we will do,’ said they.

‘I have,’ said Eochaid. ‘My wife is the best at serving drink in Ireland. I shall recognize her by her serving.’

Twenty-five were placed at that side of the house and twenty-five at this, and a vessel filled with liquor was placed in the midst of the house. Then a woman would come from this side and from that, but still King Eochaid did not find Etanna. It came to the last two women. One of them poured out first. Said Eochaid : ‘This is Etanna, and it is not herself.’

Then they all took counsel.

‘Truly it is Etana,but it is not her serving.’

Other women departed. That deed which he did was a great satisfaction to the men of Ireland, and the high feats the oxen had done, and the rescue of his wife from the men of the sidh.

One fine day Eochaid arose, and as he and his queen were conversing in the middle of the court, they saw Medros/Midir coming towards them.

‘Good morning, Eochaid,’ said Medros/Midir.

‘Good morning,’ said Eochaid.

‘You have not played me fairly with the hardships you have inflicted on me, considering all the backing you had from me and all that [..?...] ?...].to demand from me. There was nothing that you did not suspect me of.’

‘I did not give up to you my wife,’ said Eochaid.

‘Answer sincerely, do you consider your conscience in regard to me?’ said Medros/Midir.

‘Until you proffer another pledge, I will not consider it,’ said Eochaid.

‘Answer sincerely, is your mind at ease?’ said Medros/Midir.

‘It is,’ said Eochaid.

‘So also is mine,’ said Midir. ‘ Your wife was pregnant when she was taken from you, she bore a daughter, and it is she who is with you. Your wife, moreover, is with me and it has befallen you to let her go a second time.’

Thereupon he departs.

After that Eochaid did not dare to dig again a sidh of Medros/ Midir's, for he had been committed in the presence of witnesses not doing it. It grieved Eochaid that his wife had eloped, and that his own daughter had lain with him. And she was with child by him and bore him a daughter. ‘O you gods,’ said Eochaid, ‘I and my daughter's daughter shall never look on one another !’

Two of his household go to throw the child into a pit among beasts. They visit the house of Findlam the herdsman of Tara in Fuat’s mountains, in the midst of a wilderness. There was no one in the house. They ate food therein. Then they threw the little girl to the bitch and her whelps that was in the kennel in the house and they go away again. The herdsman and his wife return home and saw within the fair infant in the kennel. They were amazed at that. Therefore they take her out of the kennel. They brought her up without knowing whence she had come, but she waxed strong, moreover, being the daughter of a king and queen. She surpassed all women at embroidery. Her eyes saw nothing that her hands could not embroider. In that wise then she was reared by Findlam and his wife, until one day Etarscel's people saw her and told the king, and she was taken away forcibly by Etarscel. She was with him after that as his wife. So she is the mother of Conaire son of Etarscél.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 19.

Ban Find. To the best of my reckoning, according to my knowledge in Gaelic language, this noun means “fair lady” or “white lady.”

Two white ravens and two hounds, some blind cats and whelps…. This episode was undoubtedly to be more developed in the initial myth, but there obviously the author summarizes, summarizes summarizes. So much so that it becomes not easily comprehensible. In what concerns us in any case, we hardly understand the real significance of this detail.

Fifty women. As we have already announced it, in medieval legends it is always or almost always the devil who loses when he concludes a deal with human beings. In this case it is the opposite. Medros/Midir is always the best, because he has superpowers, powers worthy of a cartoon superhero. Let us add that it is more than obvious in light of this story that time does not go in the same way in the world of the gods as in that of men. In fact, and contrary to usual conventions in this field, time went more quickly for Etanna and Medros/Midir since Etanna therefore had time to give birth to a little girl and to bring up her, whereas for Eochaid just a few months were passed.

Good morning. We translate so the Gaelic word “maith.”

For he had been committed in the presence of witnesses not doing it. We translate so the Gaelic word arach which literally means “to provide guarantors or guarantees for the fulfillment of a contract.”

THE DREAM OF MABON/MAPONOS/OENGUS (MAPONOS OINOGUSTIOS).

Aislinge Oengusso (manuscript Egerton 1782). But with Medros/Midir in the part of Bodb. It is a text of the eighth century.

Mabon/Maponos/Oengus was asleep one night when he saw something like a young girl coming towards the head of his bed : she was the most beautiful woman in Eriu. He made to take her hand and draw her to his bed, but, as he welcomed her, she vanished suddenly, and he did not know who had taken her from him. He remained in bed until the morning , but he was troubled in his mind, the form he had seen but not spoken to was making him ill. No food entered his mouth that day. He waited until the evening, and then he saw a tambourine (timpan) in her hand, the sweetest ever. She played for him until he fell asleep. Thus he was all night, and the next morning he ate nothing.

A full year passed, and the girl continued to visit Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, so that he fell in love with her, but he told no one. Then he fell sick, but no one knew what ailed him. The physicians of Green Erin gathered but could not discover what was wrong. So they sent for Fingen, Cunocavaros/Conchobar's physician, and Fingen came. He could tell from a man's face what the illness was, just as he could also tell from the smoke that came from a house how many were sick inside. Fingen took Mabon/Maponos/Oengus aside and said to him : '“You fell in love somebody who is not there.”

'You have divined my illness,' said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

'You have grown sick at heart,' said Fingen, 'and you have not dared to tell anyone.'

'It is true,' said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. 'A young girl came to me; her form was the most beautiful I have ever seen in Ireland, and her appearance was attractive. A tambourine was in her hand, and she played for me each night.'

'What matters,' said Fingen, 'it is love for her has seized you. Send messengers to Viviane/Bovinda , your mother, that she may come and speak with you.'

They sent to Viviane/Bovinda then, and she came.

'I was called to see to this man, for a mysterious illness had overcome him,' said Fingen, and he told Viviane/Bovinda what had happened.

'Let his mother tend to him,' said Fingen, 'and let her search throughout Green Erin until she finds the form that her son saw.

' The search was carried on for a year, but the like of the girl was not found. So Fingen was summoned again. 'No help has been found for him,' said Viviane/Bovinda.

'Then send for the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt , and let him come and speak with his son,' said Fingen.

The Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt was sent for and came, asking : 'Why have I been summoned?'

'To advise your son,' said Viviane/Bovinda. 'It is right that you help him, for his death would be a pity. Love in absence has overcome him, and no help for it has been found.'

'Why tell me?' asked the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt. 'My knowledge is no greater than yours.'

'Indeed it is,' said Fingen, 'for you are king of the Sidhs in Green Erin. Send messengers to Medros/Midir, for his knowledge is famous throughout Ireland.'

Messengers were sent to Medros/Midir, then, and they were welcomed: Medros/ Midir said, 'Welcome, people of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt.'

‘It is that we have come for' they replied.

'Have you news?' Medros/Midir asked.

'We have: Mabon/Maponos/Oengus son of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt has been in love for two years,' they replied. 'How is that?' Medros/Midir asked.

'He saw a young girl in his sleep,' they said, 'but we do not know where she is to be found. The Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt asks that you search all Ireland for a girl of her form and appearance.'

'That search will be made,' said Medros/Midir 'and it will be carried on for a year, so that I may be sure of finding her.'

At the end of the year, Medros/Midir's people went to him [Mabon/Maponos/Oengus] at his house of the Sidh of Ar Femuin and said : 'We made a circuit of green Erin , and we found the girl at the lake of Bel Dracon in the harp of Cliach ??'

Messengers were sent to the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt, then; he welcomed them and said : 'Have you news?'

'Good news: the girl of the form you described has been found,' they said. ' Medros/Midir has asked that MabonMaponos/Oengus return with us to see if he recognizes her as the girl he saw.'

Oengus was taken in a chariot to the sidh of Ar Femuin, then, and he was welcomed there: a great feast was prepared for him, and it lasted three days and three nights. After that, Medros/Midir said to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus : 'Let us go, now, to see if you recognize the girl. You may see her, but it is not in my power to give her to you.'

They went on until they reached a lake; there, they saw three fifties of young girls, and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus's girl was among them. The other girls were no taller than her shoulder; each pair of them was linked by a silver chain, but Mabon/Maponos/Oengus's girl wore a silver necklace, and her chain was of burnished gold. '

Do you recognize that girl?' asked Medros/Midir.

'Indeed, I do,' Mabon/Maponos/Oengus replied.

'I can do no more for you, then,' said Medros/Midir.

……………………. ……………………………………………….

After that, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and his people returned to their own land, and Medros/Midir went with them to visit the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt and Viviane/Bovinda in the Brug of the Young Son. They told their news: how the girl's form and appearance were just as Mabon/Maponos/Oengus had seen: and they told her name and those of her father and grandfather.

'A pity that we cannot get her,' said the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt.

'What you should do is go to Ailill and Medb, for the girl is in their territory,' said Medros/Midir.

The Suqellos/Dagda/Gugunt went to Connaught, then, and three score chariots with him; they were welcomed by the king and queen there and spent a week feasting and drinking.

'Now why your journey?' asked the king.

'There is a girl in your territory,' said the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt, 'with whom my son has fallen in love, and he has now fallen ill. I have come to see if you will give her to him.'

……..'We do not have the power to give her to you,' said Ailill and Medb. 'Then the best thing would be to have the king of the sídh on the territory of whom she is, called here,' said the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt.

Ailill's steward went to the king of the sidh in question, Ethal Anbual and said : 'Ailill and Medb require that you come and speak with them.'

'I will not come,' Ethal said, 'and I will not give the girl to the son of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt.'

The steward repeated this to the great Ailill, saying : 'He knows why he has been summoned, and he will not come.'

'No matter,' said Ailill, 'for he will come, and the heads of his warriors with him.'

After that, Ailill's household and the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt’s people rose against the sid and destroyed it; they brought out three score heads and confined the king to Crúachan.

Ailill said to Ethal Anbual : 'Give the girl to the son of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt.'

'I cannot,' he said, 'for her power is greater than mine.'

'What great power does she have?' Ailill asked.

'Being in the form of a bird each day of one year and in human form each day of the following year,' Ethal said.

'Which year will she be in the shape of a bird?' Ailill asked.

'It is not for me to reveal that secret,' Ethal replied.

'Your head is off,' said Ailill, 'unless you tell us.'

'I will conceal it no longer, then, but will tell you, since you are so obstinate,' said Ethal. 'Next Sam (ios) she will be in the form of a bird; she will be on the lake of Bel Dracon, and beautiful birds will be seen with her, three fifties of swans will be about her, and I will make me ready to do the same thing ????

‘Ni báe lemm-sa iarum,’ ol in Dagdae, ‘óre ro-fetar a h-aicned do-s-uc-so.’

'No matter that,' said the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt , 'since I know very well the nature of the shape I have brought upon her ???'

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 20.

Fingen liaig Conchobuir. We translate by a physician the Irish word liaig/legi, which also seems to mean “surgeon.” Former druids also dealt much with body medicine. That should be no longer the case . The high knowers of today must deal only with the care of the souls.

The king of the Sidhs in Green Erin ( Ireland). The sidhs (old Celtic ‘Sedos’) are main doors or exit doors of the other world. Each god-or-demon has one or more of these doors and lives there (remains behind). But there is not only in Ireland that there are sidhs, there are some of them in the whole world. In Germany and the Czech Republic in the United Kingdom, etc. and even Delphi in a way, which is a sidh belonging to Belenos/Abellio called Apollo by the Greeks. And even Lourdes in France for the Catholics. Lourdes is the sidh of a goddess or a super heroine called Virgin Mary*.

And all these sidhs are adjoining. Lastly, in spite of the mention of a king of the Sids different according to the times or the texts) it would be righter in this respect to consider it is a kind of republic, the United Sids , directed by an elected president endowed with strong powers.

* A votive altar and two sculptures, a head of the Eastern god Mithra and a not identified female head were discovered in Lourdes dating back the Gallo-Roman period.

Ni bâe lemm-sa iarum, ôre ro-fetar a haicned do-s-uc-so.

This rather enigmatic sentence perhaps means that the Suqello/ Dagda/Gurgunt asserts the responsibility for the metamorphosis. And we can deduce from it or conclude from it that the god-or-demon had recourse to this process, unpleasant and cause of innumerable complications , to make his son able to marry that one whom he is in love. Was this also a way of punishing the young girl, very temporarily, for the heartsickness of which her provocation was the cause? The conciseness of the text is too great so that we go so far as to put forward anything. What is certain it is that some passages are to be missing , what does not make our comprehension of the proceedings of the scenario, which can seem incoherent, easier.

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Peace and friendship were made among Ailill and Ethal and the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt, then, who bade them farewell and went to his house and told the news to his son. 'Go next Samon (ios) to the lake of Bel Dracon,' he said, 'and call her to you there.' The Young Son went to the lake of Bel Dracon, and there he saw the three fifties of white birds, with silver chains, and golden curls about their heads. Oengus was in human form at the edge of the lake, and he called to the girl, saying : ‘Come and speak with me, Caer!'

'Who is calling to me?' asked Etanna.

'Oengus is calling,' he replied.

'I will come,' she said, 'if you promise me that I may return to the lake tomorrow.'

'I promise that,' he said.

She went to him, then: he put his arms round her, and they slept together in the form of swans until they had made circles around the lake three times. Thus, he kept his promise. They left in the form of two white birds and flew to the Brug of the Young Son, there they sang until the people inside fell asleep for three days and three nights. The girl remained with Mabon/Maponos/Oengus after that. This is how the friendship between Ailill and Medb and the Mac Oc arose, and this is why Mabon/Maponos/Oengus went with three hundred [men] to the cattle raid of Cualnge.

Conid ‘De Aislingiu Óenguso maicc in Dagdai’ ainm in scéuil sin isin Táin Bó Cúailnge. Finit.

Dreams of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus son of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt is the name of this story in the Rustling of the cows of Cualnge. The end.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 21.

This is why Mabon/Maponos/Oengus went with three hundred [men] to the cattle raid of Cualnge. No trace of this intervention exists in what remains to us of this saga. It is the umpteenth evidence that whole pieces of all this oral literature are missing, that is to say that the bards having written these accounts had much imagination. Or were not afraid of a literary ”forgery” , but without real intention to mislead, just in order to attract their readers or more exactly their listeners.

BELOW AGAIN THE WOOING OF ETANNA .

MANUSCRIPT EGERTON 1782.

After the men of Erinn came to the feast of Temur and they were there a fortnight before Samon (ios) and a fortnight after. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus began to look at Etanna insistently as long as she was at the feast of Temur. Then said the wife of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus to wit the daughter of Luchta Laimderg from the frontier of the Leinster: Well then Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, why you look to the side so long, it seems that this long-looking is a token of love. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus reproved himself and did not look at the maiden again. Then the men of Green Erin separated from each other after having eaten the feast of Temur.

Then there was filled the swelling of jealousy and of envy to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and the marrow oozed out , causing him a severe disease : therefore he was brought afterwards to Dun Fremain in Tethba. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus remained there to the end of the year in love and in longing and he did not confess his illness to anybody. Then came the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt to visit his son and he put his hand on his breast : Mabon/Maponos/Oengus uttered a groan.

Come on, this illness is not so severe, said the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt, how you are today?

Upon my word, said he, I do not know, but it is worse every day and every night.

What has come upon YOU, said the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt?

Upon my word I do not know, said he.

There will be brought somebody to me, said the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt, who will know YOUR illness.

Then Fachtna the other physician of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt was brought to him, he put his hand on his breast and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus uttered a groan.

Well, said Fachtna, the case is not severe and I know your illness but I do not know any help, you have got the swelling of jealousy, or it is love that fell on you but it has not been brought out till now .

It was a shame for Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and he did not confess his illness to the physician so the latter went again from him. As for the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt, he went to his royal tour in Green Erinn he left Etanna in the fortress and told her : Well maiden, let your bed be made near to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus as long as he is alive and when he is dead let his grave be dug on the field ?? and let a tombstone and a pillar be erected and his name to be written in ogamic runes. Then the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgnt went to his royal tour in Green Erinn and left Mabon/Maponos/Oengus there in Dun Fremainn in Tethba for death and for extinction for the space of a year.

One day Etanna went to the house where Mabon/Maponos/Oengus was in sickness and spoke to him thus: What has happened to you, great is your disease, if we knew the thing that could relieve you we would get it. Here the lay that spoke and sang the girl and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus answered :

What has happened to you, youth

Long is your sickness.

Is fossad do cheim glan gle ?????

Cia beith dfeabus Na sine ?????

There is a reason for my wounds —

I have no song in my harp.

Nimtol ann ni do gan blicht ???

That has brought me in this shape.

Tell me what afflicts you, youth

I am a ercnaid ?? maiden.

Tell me what happens to you (dal)

That I may take to cure you.

It does not fit me to bid you

Maiden, beautiful is your shape.

Daigh neich andiaigh asula ??

That woman's secrets are not good.

Why should woman's secrets be bad

Such unhappy love affair is only a distant memory ???

Since the thing has been taken in hand,

there is no want of a confession.

Blessing on you, beautiful girl (inghiun finn) ?

I am not able to speak.

I am not master of my own sense

My heart is in discordance.

I am sad O daughter of a king

My beautiful Etanna

My body and my mind is sick

This is told in whole Ireland.

If it were on account of the troops of fair women

That you were in grief.

I would come here if it pleased you

I would undertake your courtship,

O maiden, said he, it would be easy for you to cure me from my illness and it is probable that you would cure me, only it is a love that is deeper every year, my love is like a wounding, it is a violent want of strength ? it is the four parts of the earth, it is endless like the sky (?), it is breaking the neck, it is a battle against a shade, it is drowning in water, it is a race to heaven, it is bravery under the sea ? is grad do mac alla ? it is a love worthy of the son of the rock ? Mo gradsae ocus mosercc ocus minmaine donti datucus ??? My love, my affection and my esteem, I have given them to ????

Then the maiden reflected upon the illness that was in him and it was sad to her, so she said one day :

Arise noble Mabon/Maponos/Oengus

It fits to you more than to anybody to be very bold (rochalma)

Because you will have what we know very well (rofes)

I will undertake to cure you.

If this is your will in your mind

Quickly put your arms around my neck

It will be the commencement of a wooing

Colorful

A woman and a man in love .

If it is not enough for you, noble warrior,

Son of a king, mighty ruler

I will make to relieve you something pleasant (grinn)

from my knee to??? (conimmluin).

Let a hundred oxen and hundred ounces of gold

A hundred bridled and assembled horses

A hundred clothes of every speckled color

Are brought in my land as financial compensation (fochrig).

A hundred animals of each kind moreover

It was a great emigration

To have me, very precisely,

Is the price that one already gave for me at once.

Then the maiden came every day to wash him and to give him his food and she improved him greatly for it was a pity to her that he should die on her account. One day then the maiden said to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus : « Come tomorrow in the morning to meet me in the small house which is on the hill outside and there I will yield to your request and to your desire.

Mabon/Maponos/Oengus was without sleep that night until the morning came. But when it was time to meet her then sleep fell on him so that he was asleep until the time of getting up. Etanna went to the meeting place and was not long waiting when she saw an unhealthy man [coming] near her similar to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, he was weary and tired.

The maiden recognized that he was not Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. Then she looked forward to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. Afterwards she went from the meeting place again. Then Mabon/Maponos/Oengus awoke and death was better for him than life. He was ill from great sorrow and grief. Then the maiden came to speak to him. He related her what had happened to him. Come, said she, at the same place tomorrow . But it was the same man as that who had come on the first day who arrived. Not with you at all have I stipulated this meeting , why come you to meet me? The meeting I stipulated with him I did it not from lust nor by accident but to save him from an illness in which he fell through love of me.

You would do better, however, to come to my meeting, because when you were formerly Etanna of Eochraidhe daughter of King Etar??? , it is me who was your husband.

What then, said she, what is your name therefore, by which you are called ?

Not difficult, Medros/Midir of Bri Leith is my name, said he.

What has separated you from me if we were in this position said Etanna.

Not difficult, said Medros/Midir, the evil spell (fithnaissiu) of Vocumnaca ( Fuaimnech) and the incantations (brechtae) of Bresalos Etarlamos (Bresal Etarlaim) have separated us.

Medros/Midir said to Etanna : "Will you come with me ?”

Not so, said she, nor will I give up [sell] the king of Erinn for you nor for anyone whose name and kindred I do not know.

Is misiu ém ol Mider dorat for menmain Ailella dosercc. Is me don rothairmiscc im Ailell dul itdail 7 itconni 7 nar léc do thenech do milliud.

Tanic iarsin iningen diatigh ocus dochuaid daccallaim Ailellu 7 bennachais do. Is maith tra dorala duinesin diblinuib

ar Ailell. Isam slansa fodechtsa domgalur 7 issat slansa dotenech.

7 bersiu bennachtain itloch amar diarn deib ar Etain, is maith lim amlaid sin.

I myself, said Medros/Midir, have put it in Mabon/Maponos/Oengus’s mind to love you. And I have prevented him from going to meet you, so that he cannot spoil your honor (nar léc do thenech do milliud).

Then the maiden came back to her house, went to speak to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and blessed him.

This man came luckily for us both said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. I am healed at once from my illness and you have your honor saved (7 issat slansa dotenech).

And let us give thanks to the gods (deib) that it is thus, said Etanna, it is better to us in this way.

Then the Suquellos/Dagda/Gurgunt came from his royal tour and inquired after his son at once. He told him his news from the beginning to the end and the king was thankful to Etanna for the good she had done to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and it is wonderful for us this story. It is called the story of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt and Etanna.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 22.

Here the lay that…. Number 50 in Latin figures (L) seems to appear at this place. I don’t know what conclude from that. It is true that Etanna often seems to appear in our texts in company with 50 other people like her.

Spoil your honor. We translate the Gaelic word enech by “honor” although its literal meaning is “face.” All this sentence is nevertheless rather strange and looks very Christian. Did one ever see gods giving thanks to themselves?

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For after the history of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt and Etanna, it is told that once when Eochaid was in Fremainn, and at such time as his people had prepared for themselves a great gathering and certain horse races; thither also to that festival came Etanna, that she might see the sight. Thither also came Medros/Midir, and he searched through that assembly to find out where Etanna might be. He found the latter, and her women around her, and he bore her away with him, also one of her handmaidens, called Croichean the Ruddy. Hideous was the form in which Medros/MidIr approached them. And the wives of the men of Ireland raised cries of woe, as Etanna was carried off from among them. The horses of Ireland were loosed to pursue Medros/Midir, for they knew not whether it was into the air or into the earth he had gone. In fact, the course that he had taken was the road to the west, even to the plain of Cruachan; and as he came thither, Croichean the Ruddy said him : "How will it profit us this journey of ours to this plain?"

"For evermore will your name be over all this plain" : said Medros/MidIr and hence comes the name of the plain of Cruachan, and of the Fort of Croghan.

Then Medros/Midir came to the sidh of Cruachan ; for the dwellers in that mound were allied to him, and his friends. For nine days they lingered there, banqueting and feasting.

"Is this the place where you make your home?" said Croichean to Medros/Midir.

"Eastwards from this is my dwelling indeed," Medros/MidIr answered her; "nearer to the rising place of the sun”; and Medros/Midir, taking Etanna with him, departed, then came to the brug of Bri Leith mic Celtchair.

Now just at the time when they came to this palace, King Eochaid sent out from him the horsemen of Ireland, his household, his officers who had the care of the roads, and the couriers of the boundaries, that they might search through the country, and find out where the woman might be; and the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt himself wandered throughout Ireland to seek for the woman; and for a year from that day until the same day upon the year that followed he searched, and he found nothing to profit him.

Then, at the last, King Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt sent for his druid, and he set to him the task to seek for Etain; now the name of the druid was Dalan. He came before him upon that day; and he went westwards, until he came to the mountain that was after that known as Dalan’s Mountain and he remained there upon that night. The druid deemed it a grievous thing that Etanna should be hidden from him for the space of one year, and thereupon he made three wands of yew; upon the wands he wrote oghamic runes; and by the keys of wisdom that he had, and by the oghamic runes, it was revealed to him that Etanna was in the fairy mound of Bri Leith, that Medros/Mider had borne her thither.

Then Dalan the druid turned him, and went back to the east; and he came to the stronghold of Fremain, even to the place where the king of Ireland was; the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt asked from the druid his news. Thither also came the horsemen, and the wizards, and the officers who had the care of the roads, and the couriers of the boundaries, and he asked them what tidings they had, and whether they had found news of Medros/Midir and Etain. And they said that they had found nothing at all; until at last said his druid to him: "A great evil has smitten you, also shame, and misfortune, on account of the loss of this woman. Do you assemble the warriors of Ireland, and depart where is the fortified hill of Leith mic Celtchair; let that castle be destroyed by your hand, and there you will find the woman: then by persuasion or by force do you take her thence."

Then Eochaid and the men of Ireland marched to Bri Leith, and they set themselves to destroy that fairy dwelling, and to demand that Etain be brought to them, and they brought her not. Then they ruined that sidh , and they brought Etanna out from it; then she returned to the Brug at Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

This tale is known by the name of the "Sick-bed of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus" also as "The Courtship of Etanna .”

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 23.

"For evermore will your name be over all this plain" . Once again the bard having written this story did not resist the temptation to propose to his listeners a whimsical etymology of this place name.

The brug of Bri Leith mic Celtchair. The brug is a kind of hotel or hall even of palace. See the case of the famous Brug Na Boinne. Most of the time matching a megalithic monument. The Gaelic formulation implies that the brug would have been that of the son of the person by the name Celtchar.

THE NURTURE OF THE HOUSE OF THE TWO MILK PAILS AGAIN.

There was no one who saw her who did not fall in love with her. It is she was most pleasing to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and the fame of that noble company spread to the four corners of Green Erin. The daughter of the steward was more famous than all the womenfolk or than Curcog, and the nobles of the people of the goddess Danu (bia) came by reason of the repute of those women.

Vindbarros came from the sidh of the bare hill of Meadha to the mansion on the Boinne to behold those women. He was warmly welcomed, his horses and chariot were unyoked, and he entered the mansion with Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and they were drinking and making merry. Vindobarros said he came in order to see the women. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus said : ‘which do you choose: to go to the apartment where they are, or for them to be brought to you?’

Vindobarros chose that the women should come before him, and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus sent word to Curcog and her ladies, and Curcog came with them before Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and Vindobarros. Vindobarros gazed at Curcog and all her ladies. He looked keenly at Etanna daughter of Dichu and he asked who was she who made [?] a dirty mess and, though he asked, he said: ‘it is the daughter of the worthless steward and I had almost christened her “dirty mess.” He quoted the verse:

The royal daughter of the Munster steward,

the delicate stately swan,

is a woman of the race abhorrent to us

who made the dirty mess.

And after that the maiden’s lovely face grew white, then livid, then red; she went away sorrowful and troubled with wet cheeks and flushed face to her accustomed dwelling, the solarium (grianan). When Mabon/Maponos/Oengus saw that he became terribly angry and nearly killed Vindobarros and his people. But one thing: he remembered their friendship and repented in his heart and changed his mind. After that Vindobarros set forth to depart while being in a bad mood because of this variance with Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, but his people counseled him not to separate from his brother at variance. Vindobarros went back again to the mansion and went into Mabon/Maponos/Oengus’ presence and bent low on his two vigorous white knees before his brother.

‘Why is this done before me, oh Vindobarros?’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

‘Because you are the eldest and noblest and I am the youngest of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt’s children, because it behooves every sinner to make his own amends.’

‘It is accepted,’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. They put their two fair red mouths together and kissed each other in a brotherly fashion. The mansion was got ready for Vindobarros and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, and Curcog and her ladies were fetched to the hall. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and Vindobarros sat with the princes and they put Curcog between them to do her honor. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus put his loved ward at his side, that is Etanna daughter of Dichu.

Howbeit, there was no lack of food in the hall or of the best of drink and there was not one of them who was not cheerful and satisfied save Eithne only. There was not one of Vindobarros’s or Mabon/Maponos/Oengus’s or Curcog’s people who did not kneel before her to oblige her to eat and she did not consent. One thing, however: Vindobarros feasted for three days and three nights in the castle. They said farewell on the third day and Vindobarros went away to his beautiful hill of Medha.

As regards Etanna she was seven days and nights without touching food or drink, and if all the men of Ireland were ordering her to eat or drink she would not, there was no sort of food or drink in the world they did not ask the maiden if she could eat it, and when they persisted she would say she would not. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus bethought him would she drink the milk of the Dun Cow, milked into a beautiful gold milk pail; that is, a dun cow belonging to Mabon/Maponos/Oengus then and so unique and remarkable that its like was not in Ireland or in the whole world save one other.

‘Who will milk her for me, Mabon/Maponos/Oengus?’ said the maiden.

‘Take your choice of any woman in the house including Curcog or yourself, my maid,’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

‘I will milk her myself said the maiden.

‘You shall get your wish,’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, and the cow was brought to Etanna to be milked with its tether of special silk and with the beautiful gold pail. The maiden washed her sharp white-fingered fair-hued brown- nailed hands, and she milked the dun cow after that without delay, and she and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus drank the milk of it thereupon. At every hour of the common meals, the cow was brought to the maiden to be milked and that milk was her food and drink. If all the food in the world had been brought to her, she would have had none of it save the milking of the Dun Cow only. One day that she was milking the Dun Cow she asked Mabon/Maponos/Oengus: ‘how did you find the Dun or was she [brought?] to the mansion?’

‘You shall know that,’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. ‘I went a journey with Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan eastwards overseas till we reached the Golden Pillars in the East and we went from that to India. We found there a wonderful acquisition whose like we never found before, two cows with twisted horns always in milk, a speckled cow and a dun cow, two beautiful gold pails and two tethers of rare silk along with them. We took them with to Ireland and we divided our gains. Belin/Belen/Barinthus/ Manannan gave half of them to me namely a pail, a cow and a tether ; and I brought the share you see, the Dun cow . It is in full milk every season of the year and it tastes of honey and intoxicating wine and the satisfaction of food. That I how I got the Dun Cow,’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

After that Mabon/Maponos/Oengus inquired of every druid and seer and sage and ruler in Green Erin for what cause the maiden would eat no earthly food save the milking of the Dun Cow only and he learned nothing from anyone. The story reached Cruitin Na Cuan and Emain Aballomagos and the Nobles of the Land of Promise, and they were astonished at the story they heard of Etanna. Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan sent envoys to Curcog and her ladies, and to Etanna also in particular, to find out what caused her to go without food and those envoys came therefore to the Brugh of the Boinne. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus sent his loved ones and his servants to Emain Aballomagos and they came to the lawn of Cruitin Na Cuan. All the youths rose up to meet them, and Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan with his nobles and his wife with her ladies, and they heartily welcomed the women and the maidens ???? Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan called Curcog and Etanna into a lonely spot and said to the latter ; ‘Is it true you eat no food?’

‘It is quite true,’ said the maiden.

‘How comes it thus with you, maid?’ said Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan.

‘I do not know,’ said Etanna, ‘save one thing. After the insult I received from Vindobarros, I could not eat earthly food save the milking of the Dun cow of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus milked by myself into a golden pail’.

‘I myself will prepare your helping tonight,’ said Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan. (It should be said that who had thus spoken had great powers : there was never a man sick or ill, he did not discern and diagnose the damage and he was healed by his aid, and there was never a man loathed food or drink to whom he did not restore his liking with diligence.) Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan went to where was his head steward, and piquant flavors must be put in every dish prepared for Etanna, and he practiced all his powers on them, then he came with the ladies of the mansion into the hall … ?... of every food and flavor was brought to them. Nothing was gained by that plot . . . to make Etanna taste it and all who were there wondered that Belin/Belen/Barinthus/ Manannan could not get the maiden to taste food or drink. Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan wondered that his power was brought to nothing, and he felt it a shame that somebody should be fasting in his house ; so he asked the maiden would she drink the milking of the Speckled Cow and she herself or some other woman to milk it ...?....a golden milk pail as in Asia ...?...whence they were brought; that is, the Dun cow [and the Speckled cow]... pails and tethers which are for the milking, and the cow’s buttock was given to Etanna (that is the Speckled Cow of Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan) with the golden pail and the silken tether and the maiden milked her after that . Her milking was her food and drink that night and she was not weak in that house.

‘Do you know,’ said Belin/Belen/Barinnthus/Manannan to his people, ‘wherefore this maiden eats no food?’

‘We do not know,’ said they.

‘I will inform you,’ said Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan. ‘She belongs neither to the people of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus nor yet to our people. For when Vindobarros insulted yon maiden, her guardian demon left her soul and an angel came in his place, that prevents us searching her heart and she worships neither druidry nor devilry, and that is why she drinks the milk of yonder cow, because it was brought from a righteous land, from India, and ...???? nourishing and fosterage of yon maiden watching over...? that is, the nourishing of the house of two milk pails. It is the Trinity... ?...are the gods whom that maiden adores’.

But one thing also: Curcog and her ladies and Eithne were a month and a fortnight at Emain Aballomagos and the maiden tasted no food in the house save the milking of the Speckled Cow; then they traveled to their own home for, though great was the mirth and frisking and the pleasure and gaiety of Emain Aballomagos…. ?.... to Curcog [it fell] short of being in the mansion on the Boinne at that time. Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan was trying to delay Curcog, and repeated the poem:

Oh Curcog, of pure beauty,

Be not reluctant to remain.

You will hear every evening

The songs of the Land of Promise.

………

I enjoy when I am on my wall seat ???

The pleasure of vast wealth…????

…. without fearing high and rough waves on the strand???.

...

The harbor of Cruitin on which the sun is shining????

Above which there are beautiful birds????

...

But after that Curcog went on with her ladies and she bade farewell to Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan and to his wife and household and traveled to the Brug on the Boinne River. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus came to meet them and welcomed the company and asked news of them. He inquired of Curcog what food or drink had taken Etanna or did Manannan not know the cause why Etanna did not eat.

‘She tasted no food or drink during the visit,’ said Curcog, ‘save the milking of Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan’s Speckle cow... the failure of Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan’s great power in making her have food or drink. . . Nevertheless he recognized the cause why Etanna would not taste food.’

‘Did Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan give it to you?’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

‘He said it soon,’ said Curcog ‘and this is what he said: that it is the one almighty God is the cause why she eats no food of the people of the goddess Danu (bia) , when Vindobarros insulted the maiden that she parted from her druidry, and an angelic spirit came in her heart’s place, he said even that it was the cause of her desertion and that she belonged to no other people but the true people of the Almighty Monarch.’

It is to be noticed howbeit the maiden abode in that manner [that is to say in the heathendom] from the time of Ariomanos/Eremon son of Mil to the time of Loegaire son of Niall of the nine hostages (that is; the time when the Adz-head came to Ireland).

And this was the maiden’s manner of life in that age, a while in the house of her guardian Mabon/Maponos/Oengus at the Brug on the Boinne River and a while in Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan’s house at Emain Aballomagos but she tasted no food or drink in the house of Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan save the milking of the Speckled Cow and in the same way in the Brug save the milking of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus’s Dun Cow, she herself milking each cow into

a golden pail as we said before. But a last thing: the nourishing of the house of two milk pails was magnified throughout Ireland by the people of the goddess Danu (bia) and by the Milesians, and it was also called ‘the fosterage of the house of the two pails,’ that nourishing is proverbial still and shall be forever.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 24.

And I had almost christened her “dirty mess . Useless to say that this sentence plunges us in greatest perplexity. It was obviously written by a Christian but what it means exactly??? What is obvious it is that nothing explains this sudden aggressiveness from Vindobarros/Finnbarr. Nothing explains his completely gratuitous spite. Perhaps this is there a Christian addition (an umpteenth manipulation from the followers of the god of truth) to justify the continuation.

A milk pail. Perhaps what archeologists call a “situla.”

The dun of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. Wouldn't this be there a species of cows? Some are well called “Angus or Aberdeen cows ” in Scotland.

The nobles of the Land of promise. The formulation of this passage seems to oppose or distinguish an earthly Ireland which would be the dwelling of Etanna and another world, that of the gods, the Land of Promise. What is, of course, completely false! Many other details of this legend prove that Etanna lives indeed in the same world as all these gods. There again Christians so much manipulated the text it is almost impossible to find again in it the original pan-Celtic myth. To have some gleams on the latter it is therefore necessary to resort to the religious comparativism (Graal, the divine cow Aditi in India, etc.)

Never let us yield to the idiotic and dangerous hubris of Jews Christians and Muslims consisting in believing themselves unique in the world, the only ones to be directly connected to the divinity, in short superior. Just like Irish Fenians the neo-pagans of druidic obedience must be men of twelve books (figure symbolic of course) and not only of one, whether it is called Torah New Testament or Quran, in order to well deserve to be called “high knower.” As regards religion, and in order not to die idiot, comparisons deprived of every superiority complex or of every racist notion of chosen people, must be the rule. It must even extend to pantheism even to agnosticism *. The case of the druid of Marseilles quoted by Lucian of Samosata in connection with the Celtic Hercules is the living illustration of that.

This druid commented in Greek and in a very relevant way the fresco representing the god in question.

Religious comparativism is the very substance of our philosophical and well-considered paganism because only paganism is really universal: it fits with human nature in what it has better, which is not the case with the monolatries that are Judaism Christianity and Islam.

With regard more particularly to our spiritual family religious, comparativism with the continental facts must therefore be systematic in order to leave this dead end in which the shameless lies of Christianity as well as its smugness and its self-importance have plunged us, even if today in many countries in the Orient Christians are obliged to cringe or to hug the walls in front of this other great religion of love and truth which is Islam (supported by Christians in the West it should be said). This suicide of Christians is only a poor consolation . ......The whole spiced up with a minimum of critical mind in order to point out the inconsistencies of text, including compared to science: no, the moon was not split into two (Quran) and neither the sun nor the earth did not stop in Gibeon. Let us not be as stupid as the Witnesses of Jehovah or Allah or Yahweh (it is not Moses who wrote the Pentateuch).

* And even to atheism, because the god of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob, even renamed Allah by Muhammad, could not exist, so much he is contradictory or odious at times (see the very good film Agora of Alejandro Amenabar issued in 2009, even if that Christians, the Parabolani, look furiously like our modern Muslim Taliban).

The Trinity. The whole paragraph is rather confused. There again and like in the case of the word erdathe it is difficult to know if it is only a Christian invention artificially tacked onto this episode of the legend, or if it is the recycling of a pagan concept.

It was well believed among Romans in the existence within the heart or the consciousness of every individual, of a good spirit and of an evil spirit (genius, Iuno for women) playing the parts in question exactly (namely the function the Christians attribute to what they call guardian angel, or guardian demon according to this text).

In the old Latin language, the same genie was used to explain all the events of life: a man had it in turn good or evil in turn: propitium, iratum, sinistrum habere. It was born with each man, it died with him, i.e. it returned within the universal soul of which it was an emanation. It is the doctrines which Horatius expresses in the lines of verse below:

Scit Genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum.

Naturae deus humanae, mortalis in unum

Quodque caput, voltu mutabilis, albus et ater.

The "genius" is ultimately the religious personification of the secret and mysterious power (vis abdita quaedam) which takes the place of the deity in the epicureanism of Lucretius; in the literature, which was necessarily influenced by philosophy, this "geniu" plays the same part as the daemon of the Greeks: it expresses what there is more subtle in the design of the divine being. For the popular faith, it is used to make the divine being present at all the levels of reality, with the double nature of a creator and of a preserver; preservation being only a successive creation, as the action in the individuals is only the demonstration of their inner force.

The first records relating to the worship of the Genius in the Roman religion do not go back beyond the Second Punic War and there is no one of them in which we do not feel the influence of the Greek ideas regarding the daemon and soon that of the stoical doctrines. It is not less certain than the Genius was a member, with the Lares, the Penates and the Manes, of the most ancient deities of Latium. Often confused with these soul/minds * of Latin and Roman substance, it seems to designate a genus of which they are the species, the general notion of which they detail the various aspects. Etymologically, the Ancients linked the name of genius to gens, geno or gigno sometimes (through a mistake in linguistics which is not without interest for the explanation of the part of the genius) to gero. It is the strength which fathers at the starting point and which preserves in their own individuality until their destruction, and the being of the man and the beings endowed with reason that man had created in his own image (the gods)…

The genius is above all the divine strength which fathers: genius nominatur qui me genuit; he is the progenitor of the race of men, generis nostri parens. The first demonstration of his action dates from the union of the sexes; the bridal bed is under his special protection, therefore he is called genialis. Every damage to the holiness of the marriage is a crime against the genius…

Through this identification of the genius with every good and pleasant act, is explained the use of the word genius in the comic authors, who associate his mention with that of a happy meeting; for example, of a friend found again in an unforeseen way. There is here as a homage to the influence which gets buoyancy, at the very moment when it is felt; in these cases the intervention of Genius is similar to that of Fortuna.

After having applied initially to the bridal bed, to the ideas as to the persons of whom this bed suggests the idea; the adjective genialis applies to the god-or-demons [since our Christian friends of the god of love make them also some demons, the piece of evidence is here] which means abundance, joy, prosperity; to Bacchus, to Ceres, to Saturn, to the seasons when man tastes peacefully the fruits of his work, to all that in the life is happy, fertile. It is through there that as of Antiquity, genius, just like the adjective genialis, and even, in certain cases, ingenium, came to mean the fulfillment of intellectual faculties, the happy easiness of mind to give birth to beautiful and original designs.

The genius, who presided over the act of generation, appears especially on the birth day. It is him which determines the individual nature of the being which comes to the light; who will be at the same time the guiding principle of his acts, the guard of his existence, and the ideal explanation of what is reserved to him of happiness or of opposite.

In these various capacities , the genius natalis reminds, down to the smallest detail , of the daemon of the Greeks. It is difficult to say, in the greatest number of cases, if the authors who make him intervene, draw on the source of the genuine Roman beliefs; or if they adapt, according to the Greek ideas, a notion much vaguer of the old popular religion. It seems; by the use that comic authors had made of the genius, and more particularly Plautus, the most Latin of them, for whom the genius is simple and single; that the increase in the number of individual genii, varying according to one man or another, and double in each one of them, is due to the influence of the Greek literature and philosophy.

Lucilius first, therefore by following, in that, the ideas of Euclid the Socratic philosopher, admitted for each man two genii, one good, the other evil; who explain, each one for his part, what is happy or unhappy, virtuous or shameful, existences.

Even more so it is no longer the same genius which spreads on all the men an equal influence; the genius makes himself individual, and also varying in energy or moral quality; there are genii more powerful the ones than the others and, in the fight of the rival ambitions, it is their respective strength which explains the result; thus an Egyptian priest informs Antony that it is his genius which yields in front of that of Octavius. The two genii appear to the emperor Julian, one, expression of his good luck, before his accession to the throne; the other, looking despaired, even looking terrifying, after his raid against the Persians. Brutus and Cassius received both, before their fall, the visit of the evil genius in whom was embodied their disastrous fate.

Note of Peter DeLaCrau. The ancient Persian religion (zoroastrianism mazdaism) knew already the concept of guardian angel (fravashi). We are astonished, on the other hand, by the concept of guardian demons which apparently does not seem coming from Zoroaster but seems Greek and Roman. And therefore perhaps also druidic. But in this case and contrarily to Zoroastrianism it was to be a very relative dualism. It remains, of course, the assumption that it is an umpteenth verbal delirium of Christianity which has the annoying mania to call a demon in the very pejorative meaning of the word any superhuman power which does not come from its small tribal god (or more exactly from twelve tribes, the god of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob. Same thing besides with the Allah of Muhammad who at the beginning was only the main god of Mecca).

CONTACT POINTS WITH DRUIDIC SPIRITUALITY.

The genius is a male soul/mind, he appears only in the existence of men, what proves once more that he was originally the divine principle of the generation: tutela generandi. The role he performs with respect to man is played for women by the individual Juno, who must be considered as the tutela pariendi; it is only all in all an application to every particular case, of the idea of Juno Lucina, who presides over childbirth. For all the rest, Genii and Junones are similar. The Juno was called natalis like the Genius, and a woman explained the misfortunes of her existence while referring to her irritated Juno (Junonem iratam habere).

This individual genius was the beneficiary of a very simple worship which left many traces, thanks to the votive inscriptions set up in his honor. It was customary to sacrifice to him, at the birthday; the offerings which were intended to him had the characteristics of a pious simplicity; since they did not comprise bloodshed.

They consisted especially of wine, a symbol of cheerfulness of joy and strength, of flowers, image of the beauty which passes over, of cakes; the sacrifice was followed by dances. Horace associates the worship of the genius with the pastoral rejoicings through which the former plowmen in Latium celebrated the end of work as well as the winter rest; while Tellus receives the sacrifice of a pig, and Silvanus that of milk, Genius, which knows how much the life is short, is honored by flowers. Elsewhere, however, it is a question of the sacrifice of a kid or of a pig, in his honor: it is obvious that these two victims point out his nature of God-or-demon of the generation.

One also reports the use of small wine amphoras, symbolizing blood, which are given up as is , or from which was poured the contents in a place adapted, after having opened them, or to have ritually broken their neck. Perhaps by a gesture similar to that which consists in “cracking open” a champagne bottle, nowadays.

In the ordinary life, it was sworn on the genius, either on his own, or on that of a friend or of a mistress. The oath by the genius was done by touching his brow, box of the intelligent force which presides over life .................

The Juno of the woman is painted with the Genius of the husband in the lararium of a house in Pompeii. It is in the vague notion of survival of the human personality after death that the genius

borders on soul/minds generally considered as distinct from him; on the Manes, Lares and Penates, which has over him the advantage of representing more precise personifications…

Tombstone inscriptions are also reported where the idea of Genius redoubles that of Manes: Genio et Manibus. During Parentalia people honored the genius of ancestors, just like Aeneas venerates that of his father Anchises, by offering them garlands of flowers, seeds brewed in wine, salt and violets. Ovid, speaking about Larentinalia, says these festivals are welcome for the genii: geniis accepta. On a sepulchral lamp, a character dedicates his genius to the underground god-or-demons: Helenius suom geniom dis in feris mandat. In the calendars of the end of the Empire, Feralia are called Genialia, and the games celebrated in honor of the dead, genialici…

Within Roman families, the lar remains more especially the divine soul/mind where a race is incarnated; the genius is the particular guardian of the individuals who renew it. As for the Penates, it seems that this word is only a simple epithet designating sometimes the Lares, sometimes the Genii, in their function of providers of the pantry. Inscriptions in the honor of the Genius domus, domus suae are even intended for the Penates. It happens, however, that they are distinguished, as in the lines of verses where Horace calls them to witness: Quod te per Genium dextramque deosque Penates obsecro et obtestor.

We already said that the genius of Latin people has all the variety of aspects of the daemon of the Greeks; this identity of nature undoubtedly contributed much to introduce into the literature, and through it in the practice of life, uses and beliefs which were not native from Italy. Rather singular thing! Cicero, to whom had been offered many occasions to speak about the genius, does not even utter his name of him; when he must translate the Greek word daimon, he uses the word lar; but, after him, it is well genius which is used for that. Just as daimon is not only associated in language with Tyche, but that, often, he replaces her, thus Genius is sometimes identical to Fortuna: one could say that the tyche of each man is his genius. In certain inscriptions Genius plays with Fortuna the part of the male god with the female deity, like the good Daemon with Agathe Tyche.

A characteristic which distinguishes the genius of the Latin people from the demon of the Greeks, it is that piety promoted him in the ranks of personal God-or-demons; he represents, through a kind of refinement, the ideal deity, opposed to their anthropomorphic expression. This form of worship of genii is even rather old in Italy, the inscription of year 38 before our era in the Jupiter Liber temple, in Furfo, attest to it; the Jupiter genius is distinguished there from Jupiter himself. Arnobius quotes us the passage of a former scholar, probably Caecina, the friend of Cicero, where the genius of Jupiter, Genius Jovialis, is quoted among the four Penates of Etruria; it is one of the documents according to it specialists thought relevant to ascribe to Etruscan civilization, belief in the genii, that we find among Latin people; however the genius of the god-or-demons is ordinary and really popular among the latter. Inscriptions and texts mention the genii of Jupiter, Juno Sospita, Apollo, Mars, Asclepius, Priapus, the Sleep and even moral personifications like Fama, Virtus and Virtutes.

This distinction between the genius of a god-or-demon, and his personality, was especially convenient for the Romans in a foreign country; it was used to them to prepare the identification of the exotic deities with those of their national religion, to reconcile, practically, the Roman worshiping of genius, with the homage they were keen to pay back to the god-or-demons of the overcome people. Thus we have inscriptions in honor of the genius of Mercurius Alaunus, or Jupiter Dolichenus, which are Celtic deities. An inscription, found in the French department of the Indre, and that is probably dating back to the reign of Augustus, is in honor of the imperial divinity and of the genius of Atepomarus Apollo. NUM AU (g) AND GENIO APOLLINIS ATEPOMARI.

This inscription is interesting in two ways ; because the epithet given to the Roman god-or-demon is still new; and because the homage paid at the same time to the divinity of Augustus and to the genius of Apollo points out the legend of the emperor born from the mysterious snake which would have had sexual intercourse with Atia.

It appears well, through these various evidences, that the genii of the great god-or-demons are another thing that a weakened emanation of their divinity; another thing that messengers or servants, responsible for performing among the mortals the works in which their majesty was not to be associated; what are the propoloi daimones of Greeks. This last opinion encounters this characteristic

fact that, even if the personified deities are taken in the plural like the Forinae or the Virtutes, the genius is always in the singular. We could not admit more, that the genius of the god-or-demons is only their located numen, thanks to a kind of extension of the notion of genius loci. The genius of the god-or-demons was considered, absolutely like that of the men, to express, in a shape more linked to their anthropomorphic personality than the numen, their moral action; he is their ingenium. Such is the meaning of the genius of Priapus in Petronius, of that of Fama in Martial.

We could not deny, however, that the processes of localization did not play a part, when piety, always in search of new food, did its utmost then to separate the genius from the god-or-demon himself…

Before the very times of the religious syncretism, the genius came in this way to be used as hyphen between the world of the god-or-demons, and the nature of the human beings. Aufustius, an archeologist contemporary of Cicero, called it: deorum filius et parens hominum. But it is there a point of view where the religious speculation falls into pure philosophy.

This one, besides, could not fail to make the most of the idea of the genius, just like the Greeks used the daemon, to give themselves a look of orthodoxy, and to subject to rationalist interpretation the popular ideas about the god-or-demons. Varro, after having placed the genius among the dei selecti, between Saturn and Mercury, made him the reasonable soul of men (their mind), in contrast with lower faculties and passions…

Above all these particular genii, often named with them, glides the genius of the emperors, associated since Augustus with the worship of public Lares. When he put again in honor the festival of the Compitalia, he made the image of his own genius being placed in each chapel of the district (there were 265 of them), between the two Lares, and the Senate issued that in all the houses, at the beginning of each meal, people would make libations in the honor of the genius of the Emperor, like the Greeks made some in honor of the good daemon. Then also began the use of swearing on the divinity (numen) or the genius of the sovereign, what the Greeks translated by his tyche; it was in vain that Tiberius preferred to be raised against this form of apotheosis. The practice of this oath and the homage to the imperial genius became obligatory; those who contravened this use were punished by the drubbing. J.A. Hild.

Below what points out to us Dyfed Lloyd Evans in connection with the Genius Cucullatus or the Genii Cucullati (hooded genii).

Specialists designate with this name a whole series of images known in the old Celtic provinces of the Roman Empire. The name comes from a discovery made in the ruins of a temple located at Wabelsdorf in Austria, and excavated by Rudolf Egger. Two great altars had been installed there, which represented a figure wearing a hooded coat, with a Latin inscription “genio cucullato” (= to the hooded genius). Name obviously referring to the clothing worn by this character (cucullus). Similar representations found in Great Britain and in Gaul were therefore called thus.

They seem to represent either some giants (cavaroï) or some dwarves (corroï) and some wear a phallus outgoing from their open coat.

In Great Britain, cucullati always have a small stature, and are triplicate. They are all similarly covered with the same coat. They have obvious sexual symbols: eggs or purses. For as much, such symbols are not unknown on the Continent, since we find the eggs on a wood sculpture discovered in Geneva, and the purses on a representation found in the temple of Xsulsigiae in Trier.

In Great Britain as on the Continent, these deities are often represented holding some parchments or scroll-shaped books, perhaps to evoke medical science (see the specimen found at Reculver in Kent) or any accountancy.

They have generally an undeniable phallic appearance , although the gender of these genii (male or female) is in certain cases not very obvious. Some specialists maintain they are all male, but in the case of the specimens found at Housesteads, only the central figure is undoubtedly male. Two others being more or less female. It is perhaps, like in the cases of the triads of fairies of matres type, a question of representing the various ages of life. The central figure shows us a mature man and the two other figures some young teenagers.

One of the noticeable differences between Telesphorus and the genius cucullatus, is the fact that, in the majority of cases, the telesphorus does not wear shoes. As regards Great Britain, the Celtic origin of these triple representations is undeniable. It does not go in the same way on the Continent where the genii cucullati, in a triple form, were found only in a single case: a clay tablet discovered at Kaerlich in Germany.

All the other finds or discoveries concern, not genii cucullati in a triple form, but isolated individuals.

Waldemar Deonna in his essay entitled: From Telesphorus to the “frocked monk,” argues that there was interpretatio romana and bringing together therefore between a druidic concept and a Roman or Greek god-or-demon. An exemplary case of this bringing together is the representation found in Nimes. The genius cucullatus is barefoot like Telesphorus, but the rest of this iconography is clearly Celtic, and completely comparable with the genius cucullatus found at Netherby, Cumberland, along Hadrian's Wall.

The deposits of small engraved cucullati in the graves means perhaps that this deity had a psychopompous role, in addition to his links with fertility or health. And that it was a guard of the human being, from conception to death.

N.B. We should not confuse the almost individual guardian angels, of paganism, that are the genii cucullati, for men and the fairies of matres suleviae type for women; with the fairies of Matres lubicae or nessamae (“Latin proxumae”) type, who are guardian angels of the family; the fairies of Matres veniales type who are guardian angels of the extended family (= clan); and the fairies of Matres Totales type (= goddess-or-demoness, or godmother fairies of the tribe); or the Matrones who are guardian angels of a human group narrowly united but not necessarily by blood ties.

* Reminder: druidic theology probably distinguished the soul (anamone) from the mind (menman). These two entities or these two beings although narrowly united during life, disjoined themselves little by little in death, the mind or menman being the first to become blurred.

It is to be noticed howbeit ….As we have had already the opportunity to see it in our previous lessons, Eremon and the invasion of the sons of Mil are only a fabrication, a mere forgery of the Irish bards eager to give their patrons prestigious origins dating back to Egyptians to Scythians to Greeks, etc. this passage is therefore a gloss of the Christian author having rewritten the legend of Etanna.

Tailginn is a Gaelic word meaning “adz-head”, nickname of St Patrick (an allusion to his tonsure ?) However the monolatrous * religion established in power and decreed state religion (invented?) by the policy of Roman Emperor Constantine was not brought in Ireland by St Patrick. There were Christians in Ireland before St Patrick. Perhaps through the wine trade with Bordeaux and the slaves or captive taken on the Breton coasts. St Patrick did nothing but develop this first Christianity to an extent difficult to determine because the first historical Christianity which can be distinguished in Ireland is not the Christianity of the Roman and diocesan type like that of St Patrick but a Celtic and monastic Christianity. They are the later followers of the religion of truth who manipulated texts to make St Patrick the evangelist of Ireland whereas he was probably only the tutor of the daughters of King Loegaire (yes, Christianity was especially spread thanks to the conversion of powerful people, not of slaves or of poor people. In Ireland at least).

* Its monolatrous nature is disputed by Islam of which God is, however, only the pagan god of Mecca.

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When the Adz-head came, and when druids and demons were expelled by him from Eire, and when everyone in the community had submitted to religion and piety, Curcog and her ladies were on the lawn of Brug of the Boinne River in summer weather. Heat and sultriness overcame the ladies and they went swimming in the Boinne. When the maidens had had enough of swimming and diving each one of them went to her garments and left the river. Eithne did not notice the maidens’ departure and it so happened to her that the ‘Fed Fiar’ and the druidry left that lovely maiden, that is Etanna. (For it is through that Fed Fiar the company could not be seen at the beginning and that Etanna was not seen till that hour.) Etanna did not see her companions then (but everyone, on the other hand, could see her). She came ashore and put on her clothes then began to search for them on the banks of the Boinne but found them not. Before long she saw a branchy green-boughed garden and the bare wall of a cemetery built round it. The maiden went towards that cemetery and saw a nice gray-haired hermit in the door of the church, with a book, he was earnestly praising the Creator.

The maiden at once saluted the hermit and he answered : ‘What brings you here alone oh maiden?’

She told him therefore her adventures.

‘Who are you, oh hermit?’ said the maiden, ‘and to what household do you belong?’

‘I am of the household of God,’ said the hermit, ‘and Patrick son of Calpurnius is my lord and viceroy. Who are your people, oh maiden?’ said in turn the hermit.

‘I am of the People of the Goddess Danu (bia) ’ said she, ‘and ‘till now, my people and yours were the same.’

‘Your arrival to us is welcome,’ said the hermit, ‘and not to you ... ?'

'.......of God’s faithful people, that faith of yours?’ said the maiden.

‘Praising the Lord and reading aloud from this book, but if you are of God’s faithful people it is strange you did not know it.’

‘Teach me to know it,’ said the maiden, ‘for I never saw its like. Moreover I would like you to teach me henceforward and give me a lesson on every poem,’ she said.

What you sing

O you the man who promised me to teach it?

Its like for sweetness

I did not hear in the Land of Promise.

If sweet to you to hear it,

Oh fair yellow-haired maiden,

Then you will listen in very truth

To what is in this book.

Take the little psalter steadfastly,

Oh blissful cleric of the Adz-Head.

Put in my memory all the learning

That is in it. Go.

After that poem Etanna bent her head over the book and read it without delay as if she had learned it from the night she was born. The hermit was amazed at the maiden’s psalmody and how she read the book for if she had had all the books Patrick brought to Ireland she would have read them similarly without delay : the hermit loved therefore and respected therefore her the more.

They were at this till the hermit’s dinner hour. He then rose and took his fishing rod, and went to the river. Etanna had not long to wait till he came to the house with a beautiful salmon.

‘What have you got?’ said the maiden.

‘My share of provisions from the Lord,’ said the hermit, ‘and I have need of it tonight that I never had before ????’

‘If I knew how you did it, noble elder, said the maiden ‘ I would not take from your share but take you the rod and seek my share from the Lord as you did get for yourself.’

‘I will go myself, oh maiden’, said he.

The hermit went to the river and let down the rod. He had not long to wait till he caught a most splendid salmon. Its like was never seen and he took it to the maiden, it was an exploit to carry it from the river to the church. He laid the salmon down and did reverence to the maiden after that, and said: ‘You are indeed one of God’s people, oh maiden’, may my soul be under your soul’s protection.'

Then the hermit sat down and began to pound the fish till it was ready and they ate the roe of it, that is half each one.... ???. every morsel of it tasted like honey. Then he made a bed for the maiden and another bed for himself, and they were sharing thus everything fairly with harmony and unanimity for a long time.

As to the company of ladies: they had left Etanna behind them and could find her no longer. They approached Mabon/Maponos/Oengus sadly and told him timidly of the loss of the maiden. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus at once chided Curcog, and his steed was brought him, Curcog went with him on the search. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus went forward to Ros Dighair and he searched every fort in Eire for the maiden and he found her not. He came to the banks of the Boinne and searched for her. While they were there, they saw the oratory and the dwelling and came just opposite on the far side of the river. Etanna looked forth on the riders and recognized Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and Curcog and their companions. The hermit brought her food, also for himself, on the side near the maiden’s weir fishing but, though he looked, in their direction he did not see them because the ‘Feth Fiar’ was over them. The hermit asked the maiden: ‘What see you, oh maiden?’

‘I see Mabon/Maponos/Oengus my guardian searching for me, and my comrade, Curcog, and the household of the Brug, and her ladies. It will be a vain search for them,’ said the maiden. ‘. . . indeed if it be the will of God,’ said the hermit.

THE ALDER KING (publisher subtitle).

Dear to me is yon host of riders

Whom I see along the green-banked Boinne,

A royal noble company.

There was no strife or calamity.

The joy of the company

Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, son of the Suqellos/Dagda/Gurgunt,

is a horseman, is a sailor.

The pleasant household of the fair Brug

Are warlike, valiant , wound dealing.

The sad and sorrowful lad

shall be Mabon/Maponos/Oengus’s name tonight.

The women of the fair Brug ???

Find no rest from searching,

My comrade Curcog does not cease from lamenting me.

It was the duty of all to guard her.

From the day I was taunted

By Vindobarros, by my guardian’s brother,

I will not stay at Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan

With noble Ilbrec or Sigmall.

I bless that Vindobarros

Through whom came my love of God,

The speech of the long-haired one

Which put me to shame that day.

I will not stay with Abhartach

Or with Bodua nor with Medros/Midir

????

I will accompany no longer

A member of the people of the goddess Danu (bia)

My body belongs to Jesus and my soul also.

Welcome is the arrival of the Tailgenn

Who came to Eire of the yew wood.

Without this suffering

Death with him would be sweet ???

After that poem the hermit prayed to the Lord for Patrick to come to comfort and succor him for fear the maiden should be taken from them against her will. The Lord granted to the cleric to get his righteous prayer so that at the same moment Patrick came with his clerics to the door of the oratory and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus to the other side of the river. Then Patrick asked the cleric for the maiden’s story and an argument began between him and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus concerning her. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus asked: ‘Will you let my ward come to me, oh cleric?’

‘The maid is not your ward,’ said Patrick, ‘but the ward of the God of creation though she was lent by her father to you.’

‘I am ready to take the maiden by force, ’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, ‘if she thinks it to her advantage to come to... ????

‘If you took my advice Mabon/Maponos/Oengus,’ said he, ‘“you would not have to fear my interference in any righteous affair.”

‘What is it?’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

‘Worship the true Almighty God and shun vain gods, arise in the name of the Trinity, change your name and depart from hell torments.’

‘That is not the cause for which we came from our home,’ said Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. He then spurred his horse from the river and retired sadly and sorrowfully, his ward perceived his reluctance to do so and he recited the poem:

Let us return in sorrow, oh Etanna of the bright shapely head,

The fair white ungrateful swan whom I shall cherish no more.

Since they took away her comrade useless was the guarding by Curcog.

??????????

Let us heave three loud cries lamenting as a wounded man

????????????

Etanna is no more my child from this out.

??????????????

Oh host of the Land of Promise, but though grievous for us let us do it.

The coming of the Adz-head to this land is my misfortune (I do not conceal it)

Departing from her, I leave. But though hard and harsh let us do it.

After that Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and his household uttered a terrible wailing cry lamenting Etanna. When Eithne heard Mabon/Maponos/Oengus’s people weeping her heart leaped in her bosom and from that start came grief from one breast into the other. She asked Patrick for baptism and remission of sins and received it from him and was named after him. But one thing: for a whole fortnight the maiden grew steadily worse and she was praying to God and to Patrick who with his clerics was much grieved. When Etanna felt her death was near, she commended her soul to God and to Patrick then recited the poem:

« Call me, you people of heaven, call my soul by your prayers.

I will not forsake God’s heaven for the palace of my guardian Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

Pleasant is the house where the people of the Holy Lord are.

His grace shall be sung and his changeless felicity.

Though the women of the Brug weep and wail greatly

I prefer the cry of clerics at my bedside defending my soul from hell.

I thank Christ of the peoples for my parting from the people of the goddess Danu (bia)

Though I am of their race I am not one of them, I believe in Jesus, the great king.

The story of the Fosterage of the House of Two Milk Pails is not an unknown story.

All the nobles of grassy Votala (Fodla) will ask for it.

Oh Patrick son of noble Calpurnius defend my soul from anguish,

Absolve me of my sins and faults if you hear my appeal.’

After that poem Patrick took the maiden’s head on his breast and sent her soul to heaven and they then gave her honorable burial. So that Etanna’s Church at the Brug of the Boinne is called after her. The name of the hermit to whom the maiden came was Ceasan, a Scotch prince and chaplain to Patrick. He could not bear the hermitage because Etanna had died there and left it and went to Fid Gaible, there he led a holy life so that the church named after him is there, Cluain Cesain at Ros Mic Treoin in Fid Gaible. It was a pleasant camp of the Fenians before that. That is ‘the Fosterage of the House of Two pails’ so far.

Patrick commanded that no one should sleep or talk during this story and that it should not be told save at the prayer of good people who were worthiest to hear it and he ordained many other distinctions concerning it as is told in this elegy:

FINAL ELEGY.

Dig you the grave of noble Etanna in the church above the dewy-green Boinne: after the [death of the ] fair scion of bright knowledge all the host of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus were distressed. I and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, an expert in arms, we made a pair whose hidden intentions were different , but there was never in the wide world one we loved like we loved Etanna.

I will attach these blessings to the story of Etanna of the Vindomagos:

The best of children, the best of companions, will you have when sleeping with fair women.

If you repeat the ‘Nurture’ going on a ship or a vessel

You will go safe and sound without fearing waves or billow.

If you repeat the ‘Nurture’ before coming to court or hunting ????

Your case will have a happy end and everything will be a success for you ???.

If you repeat the story of Etanna when taking a stately wife

good is the step you take, you will have the best of wives and children.

If you repeat the story of noble Etanna when going into a new alehouse;

There will be no squabbling or foolishness no drawing [from their scabbard] of curved cruel weapons.

If you repeat to a wealthy king the story of Etanna during the fight

He will not lose his throne if he listens in silence.

If you repeat this wondrous story to the prisoners of Ireland.

It will be as they will be freed from their fetters and prison.

Blessed be the soul which was in Etanna’s fair body.

Whoever knows this elegy shall carry off the victory.

Beloved was the smooth golden hair and the fair rosy countenance

The white foam-like body and the sweet-spoken mouth.

Beloved was the noble attractive body and the fair face,

The lovely modest mouth and white legs.

Let her festival be written in our songs and seen and ordered in our world.

Let her body be buried in this church.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 25.

Druidry. It goes without saying it is not there some druidic spirituality but preternatural even supernatural powers generally ascribed to the gods (cumachta) of whom that to be invisible in the eyes of mere mortals, except contrary will from them, of course. A little like the angels of Judeo-Islamic-Christianity.

Arise in the name of the Trinity. It is perhaps an allusion to the famous prayer half-pagan (lorica or breastplate) of St Patrick known as “deer’s cry" : "I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through " etc.,etc.

This flattering picture of the Christian religion in general and of the Catholic one in particular, of course, is antedated. All seems to indicate that St Patrick did not play this part and that, through a manipulation of texts frequent among Christians, many results due in fact to his papal predecessor in Ireland,Palladius, were ascribed to him.

And with regard to the very origins of Christianity we see in no way the same thing (a religion of gentleness and kindness especially widespread among slaves) appearing in the first historical testimonies.

What we see appearing first they are all kinds of more or less gnostic (Marcionism etc…) Christianity, detaching gradually from hubris and from fundamentalism or from extremism of Jewish religious

groups in armed struggle against Rome (see the titulus on the cross, INRI, the two robbers of the calvary who are Zealots), lastly supplanted by kinds of Christian Taliban: the Parabolani of Montanism, whose intolerance excesses and sectarianism will repel the authorities (persecutions) until a genial politician (Constantine) relies on to establish his personal absolute power (Caesaropapism). Because the true rise of Christianity starts indeed only with him. We will return to this point in a later study.

Grassy Fodla. Fodla, old Celtic Votala, is one of the fairies who leaned over the cradle of Ireland. It is therefore one of the names of this island.

Fenians. A kind of primitive errant knighthood made of mercenary warriors coming from every corner of the world including Continent, working for various rulers. We will reconsider the subject at greater length thereafter.

Epilogue.

Let her body be buried in this church…..

The basic topic of this legend is the conscious if not voluntary departure and withdrawal, out of this world, of the gods, in view of the rise of scientism or an anti-magic attitude, largely prepared by the former druidic action as regards knowledge. “ To you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know” (Lucan. Pharsalia, Book I).

The incredible text of the Nurture of the House of the two milk pails ; that it is necessary to parallel with the account of the conversion of the daughters of King Loegaire by St Patrick (the beautiful Ethne there too); gives us therefore the Christian version of the topic of the occultation of the god-or-demons: let us not forget indeed that the religion of love and truth which is Christianity had especially worked the fear of hell (which, however, does not exist) to impose itself in the country.

The most clearheaded druids, those who had a higher intelligence (we do not speak here about the simple veledae having joined incipient Christianity), had seen besides this spiritual disaster coming. Informed by what had occurred in Gaul, they had indeed clearly envisaged the arrival of a saint Patrick.

"A man with a shaven head (literally "adz-head ") will come with his crook-headed staff, and his cloak with a hole in its head.He will chant impiety from his table in the east of his temple. His whole household will respond to him. So be it. So be it" (druidic prophecy reported by Muirchu, in his life of St Patrick chapter 10).

There i, of course, in this text, visible and heavily emphasized Christian additions, results of a not really very subtle propaganda , but it is not always the case. There was also already, do not forget it, undeniable convergences between druidism and Christianity, Celtic mythology and Christian mythology.

Characters in Irish legends, provided that they have some fame, often offer to our vision two aspects of the same face, without we are always well able to distinguish them . There are, of course, in this text visible and heavily emphasized Christian additions, results of a not very subtle propaganda, but it is not always the case. There was also already, do not forget it, undeniable convergences between druidism and Christianity, Celtic mythology and Christian mythology.

Christian adaptation frequently joined in the form and in the expression, the content on which it is superimposed. The result is a compact conglomerate of which it becomes difficult to dissociate the elements.

But once again, let us repeat it, it is generally in this text [the fosterage of the House of the two milk pails] in our opinion, only a simple reinterpretation of a reflection of the druids of the time; i.e., the topic of the occultation of true gods. Since we find the same story in the conversion of the daughters of King Loegaire, as we saw it.

There had been well separation between the world of the god-or-demons and that of the men, but this phenomenon did not happen at the time of St Patrick. It occurred quite before. The later success of the Christian preaching is only a consequence of this phenomenon, of this decline of the spiritual life of

the Celts of the time, and not a cause. To make it the cause of this decline is a Christian view of things, and the main Christianization of the account consists in that, in our humble opinion.

Etanna symbolizes the soul/mind of Mankind given up by the god-or-demons of paganism. The chess confrontation between the god-or-demon Medros/Midir and the earthly king named Ivocatuos (Eochaid),matches in version III, the verbal confrontation between St Patrick and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus disputing both Etanna.

A process in four times.

1. The offense made by one of the sons of the Goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer (in short, of the Toutai Devas).

2. Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) having also lost part of his powers (evoked by the word cumachta in Gaelic language, what has a more or less magic connotation) he can do nothing for her.

3. The episode of the bath deprives her of the gift of invisibility which she shared with the other children of the Goddess-or-demoness, or fairy (beginning of the historicization of the god-or-demons). Etanna converts in the Christian version (see also the case of Ethne, in the history of the daughters of King Loegaire).

4. Lastly, final withdrawal of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus and his, after a short but very dense debate, with St Patrick . Mabon/Maponos/Oengus gives up taking again Etanna and leaves.

The arguments put forward are emotional, subjective or magic [what is rather astonishing in the mouth of a Christian saint. Editor’s note] and by no means theological. The saint naturally wins over the pagan deity (less powerful than Jesus Christ, and that Patrick, however, seeks to convert!) and it is it to what all the account tended. But the cry of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus is of such a desperate sadness that Etanna dies because of it, undermined by sorrow. The death of Etanna is, moreover, an elegant [and literary . Editor’s note] manner to preserve her eternal youth. It is, with the same inexpressible and poignant melancholy, the antithesis of the fate of the hag of Beare.

This revealing slip of the tongue appears clearly in full in this text: conversion to Christianity it is death, brrr, to convert to Christianity is to die, in the literal meaning of the word in the case of the unfortunate Etanna. Dark prospects. Let us acknowledge that the symbol is hardly amusing.

St Patrick attaches all the possible blessings to the recitation of the final elegy, thus respecting a very old and very ancient Indo-European idea but these blessings of St Patrick resembles superstition or magic about the effectiveness of which we can wonder besides. Particularly with regard to the recitation of the story of Etanna in full battle.

REMINDER.

Look out, look out! The following texts are not a synthesis complete nor exhaustive of all the Irish or Welsh legends on the subject. For the simple reason that such a synthesis would be impossible, seeing that the countless variants or contradictions which can be discovered in it. Only a synthesis of the broad outlines of these accounts can be envisaged.

The following texts are therefore only some partial rewriting, and in short or in summary, of the main Irish legends in question, the whole being restructured or reconstructed after the demolition on new bases and according to a different plan, here and there intersected with analyzes.

They have one goal, to give our readers enough preliminary notions or glimpses on the subject to feel like knowing more.

The following texts therefore do not exempt to refer ultimately to the original texts themselves.

THE MADNESS OF SUIBHNE.

BUILE SUIBHNE.

FOREWORD.

As always or almost in the case of our texts it is a mixture of poetry and prose. We find of it the last version in a manuscript dating back to the 17th century.

But the story itself must date back to the 14th century. The topic of the mad king appears in any case as of the 10th century.

THIS TEXT IS TYPICAL OF THE MODESTY AND OF THE HUMILITY ALWAYS CHARACTERIZING, IN THESE KINDS OF CIRCUMSTANCES, THE FOLLOWERS OF THE GOD OF LOVE OF FORGIVENESS AND OF MERCY. Like some hadiths showing us for example, the gentle and humble prophet of Islam throwing the first stone intended to lapidate an adulteress or at least commanding that it is done.

Sahih Muslim Book 017, Number 4206.

Go away until you give birth to (the child). When she was delivered, she came with the child (wrapped) in a rag and said: Here is the child whom I have given birth to. He said: Go away and suckle him until you wean him. When she had weaned him, she came to him (the Holy Prophet) with the child who was holding a piece of bread in his hand…. He (the Holy Prophet) entrusted the child to one of the Muslims and then pronounced punishment. She was put in a ditch up to her chest and he commanded people and they stoned her….Then he prayed over her and she was buried.

You will allow the nonbeliever in the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to wonder about the mental health of the various protagonists of this pathetic story (the adulteress Muhammad or others…) It is the proof that some designs of religion can make people dangerously mad even completely dotty.

To this very strange hadith, let us say it straightly, although also a non-Christian, we clearly prefer the morals of the story of the wife of Partholon or of the parable of the adulteress in chapter 8 of the Gospel according to John.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them : “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her : “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

In the case Muhammad did not have the nobility and the greatness of the high Rabbi Jesus known as the Nazarene, and Islam on this point is morally lower than druidism (see the adultery of the wife of Partholon: it is the dog which is stoned) as than Christianity.

But St Ronan behaves in this text a little as St Martin himself with the pagans. Modesty and humility not being the key point obviously of the Christians having written down this strange story , let our reader once and for all know that in the role of the stupid and malicious villain; (necessarily, since he is

not filled with enthusiasm by Christianity and Christians); there is Suibhne. In the role of the saint overflowing with love, humble like nobody and having never a word too harsh, there is, of course, St Ronan! Although… the otter is still better, as for it, since it brings back the sacred book. N.B. Only St Moling , ultimately, behaves as a true Christian.

------------------------- ---------------------------- ------------------------------------ ---------------------------------- ---------

As to Suibhne, son of Colman Cuar, king of the Dal n’Araidi (Dalaradia) , we have already told how he went wandering and flying out of the battle. Here are set forth the cause and occasion whereby these symptoms and fits of panic as well as his foluamain (ability to fly ?) came upon him beyond all others, likewise what befell him thereafter.

There was a certain noble, a distinguished holy patron in Ireland, even Ronan Finn, son of Bearach, son of Criodhan, son of Earclugh, son of Ernainne, son of Urene, son of Seachnusach, son of Colum Cuile, son of Mureadhach, son of Laoghaire, son of Niall; a man who fulfilled God's command, bore the yoke of piety, and endured, persecutions for the Lord's sake. He was God's own worthy servant, for it was his wont to crucify his body for love of God and to win a reward for his soul. A true sheltering shield against evil attacks of the devil and against vices was that gentle, friendly, active man.

On one occasion he was marking out a church known as "church of Luinne" in the land of Dal Araidhi (at that time Suibhne, son of Colman, of whom we have spoken, was king of Dal Araidhi) now, in the place where he was, Suibhne heard the sound of Ronan's bell as he was marking out the church, and he asked his people what it was they heard. ‘It is Ronan Finn, son of Bearach,’ said they, ‘who is marking out a church in your territory and land, and it is the sound of his bell you now hear.’

Suibhne was greatly angered and enraged, he set out with the utmost haste to drive the cleric from the church. His wife Eorann, daughter of Conn of Ciannacht, in order to hold him, seized the wing of the fringed, crimson cloak which was around him, so that the fibula of pure white silver, neatly inlaid with gold, which was on his cloak over his breast, sprang through the house. Therewith, leaving his cloak with the queen, he set out stark naked in his swift career to expel the cleric from the church, until he reached the place where Ronan was.

He found the cleric at the time glorifying the King of heaven and earth by blithely chanting his psalms with his beautiful psalter entirely covered with illuminations (lineach?) in front of him. Suibhne took up the psalter and cast it into the depths of the cold-water lake which was near him, so that it was drowned therein. Then he seized Ronan's hand and dragged him out through the church after him, nor did he let go the cleric's hand until he heard a cry of alarm. It was a serving man of Congai Claon, son of Scannlan, who uttered that cry; he had come from Congal himself to Suibhne in order that he (Suibhne) might engage in battle at Magh Rath. When the serving man reached the place of parley with Suibhne, he related the news to him from beginning to end. Suibhne then went with the serving man and left the cleric sad and sorrowful over the loss of his psalter and the contempt and dishonor which had been inflicted on him.

Thereafter, at the end of a day and a night, an otter that was in the lake came to Ronan with the psalter, and neither line nor letter of it was injured. Ronan gave thanks to God for that miracle, and then cursed Suibhne, saying: Be it my will, together with the will of the mighty Lord, that even as he came stark naked to expel me, may it be thus that he will ever be, naked, ar faoinnel & ar foluamhain ?? Wandering and flying throughout the world; may it be death from a spear point that will carry him off. My curse once more on Suibhne, but, however, my blessing on Eorann who strove to hold him. Furthermore, I bequeath to the race of Colman that destruction and extinction may be their lot the day they shall behold this psalter which was cast into the water by Suibhne and he recited the following magic formula (laid) .

Suibhne, son of Colman,

Has outraged me,

He has dragged me with him by the hand,

To leave the church of Luinne with him

……………………….

------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ --------------------

Some lines of verses follow, which, like often in this land, are in fact older than the prose text accompanying them, and which in a way do only but to paraphrase them. What would tend to prove that the primitive original text, it is the poem, and that the section of prose came only after, to summarize it or to comment on it.

---------- ---------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ - ---------------------------------------------

Thereupon Ronan came to Magh Rath to make peace between Domnall son of Aodh, and Congal Claon son of Scannlan, but he did not succeed. Howbeit, the cleric used to be taken each day as a guarantee between them that nobody would be slain during the truce period . But Suibhne, however, used to violate cleric guarantee of protection inasmuch as every peace and truce which Ronan would succeed in making Suibhne would break. He used to slay a man before the hour fixed for combat each day, and another each evening when the combat ceased. Then on the day fixed for the final battle Suibhne came to battle before the others.

In this wise did he appear. A filmy shirt of silk was next his white skin, around him was a girdle of royal satin, likewise the cloak which Congal had given him the day he slew Oilill Cedach, king of the Ui Faolain, at Magh Rath; a crimson cloak of one color was it with a close, well-woven border of beautiful, refined gold set with rows of fair gems of carbuncle from one end to the other, having in it silken loops over beautiful, shining buttons with variegation of pure white silver for fastening and opening it, each way and each path he would go; there was a slender-threaded hard fringe to that cloak. In his hands were two spears very long shod with broad iron, a yellow-speckled; an aurochs horny (bhúabhallda) shield was on his back, a gold-hilted sword at his left side.

He marched thus until he encountered Ronan with eight psalmists of his community sprinkling holy water on the hosts, and therefore they sprinkled it on Suibhne as they did on the others. Thinking it was to mock him that the water was also sprinkled on him, he placed his finger in the thong (suainemh) of the riveted spear that was in his hand, and hurling it at one of Ronan's psalmists slew him with that single cast. He made another cast with the edged, sharp-angled dart at the cleric himself, so that it pierced the bell which was on his breast and the spear’s shaft sprang off it up in the air, whereupon the cleric said: ‘I pray the mighty Lord that high as went the spear shaft into the air and among the clouds of Heaven may you go likewise even as any bird, and may the death which you have inflicted on my disciple be that which will carry you off, to wit, death from a spear point; and my curse on you, and my blessing on Eorann; that Uradhran and Telli on my behalf are against your seed and the descendants of Colman Cuar,’ then he said:

Once again my curse on Suibhne!

Great is his guilt against me,

His polished and vigorous iron

He thrust through my holy bell.

And so on and so forth yada yada yada.

In short my curse on Suibhne!

-------------- --------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------

Some lines of verses follow here resuming the account.

----------------------- --------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------

Thereafter, when both battle hosts had met, the vast army on both sides roared in the manner of a herd of stags so that they raised on high three mighty (war) shouts. Now, when Suibhne heard these great cries together with their sounds and reverberations in the clouds of Heaven and in the vault of the firmament, he looked up around him, and then a great disorder fell on him, dobhar & dásacht & fáoinnel & fúalang & folúamain & udmhaille, anbsaidhe & anfhoistine, darkness, fury, panic, frenzy,trembling of legs and giddiness filled him, likewise disgust with every place in which he used to be and desire for every place which he had not reached. His fingers were palsied, his feet trembled, his heart beat quick, his senses were overcome, his sight was distorted, his weapons fell naked from his hands, so that through Ronan's curse he went therefore, like any little bird of the air, in madness and imbecility.

And now, however, when he arrived out of the battle, it was seldom that his feet would touch the ground because of the swiftness of his course, and when he did touch it he would not shake the dew from the top of the grass for the lightness and the nimbleness of his step. And he did not halt from that headlong course until he left neither plain, nor field, nor bare mountain, nor bog, nor thicket, nor marsh, nor hill, nor hollow, nor dense-sheltering wood in Ireland that he did not travel that day, until he reached finally Ros Bearaigh, in the valley of Earcain, where he went into the yew tree that was here.

……………………………… …………………………………………………………………………….

.............................................................................................................................................................

When Suibhne heard the shout of the multitude and the tumult of the great army, he ascended from the tree towards the rain clouds of the firmament, over the summits of every place and over the ridge-pole of every land. For a long time thereafter he was faring throughout Ireland, visiting and searching in hard, rocky clefts and in bushy branches of tall ivy trees, in narrow cavities of stones, from an estuary to an estuary, from peak to peak, and from valley to valley, till he reached the ever-delightful valley of Bolcain. It is there the madmen of Ireland used to go when their year in madness was complete, that valley being ever a place of great delight for madmen. For it is thus, the valley of Bolcain is: it has four gaps to the wind, likewise a little wood very beautiful, very pleasant, clean-banked wells and cool springs, sandy, clear-water streams, and green-topped watercress and brooklime bent and long on their surface. Many likewise are its sorrels, its wood sorrels, its lus-bian ? its biorragan ? its berries, and its wild garlic, its melle ? its miodhbhun ??? its black sloes and its brown acorns. The madmen, moreover, used to smite each other for the pick of watercress of that valley and for the choice of its better couches.

………………………… ………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………

For seven whole years Suibhne wandered over Ireland from one point to another until one night, he arrived in the valley of Bolcain; for it is there stood his fortress and his dwelling-place, and more delightful was it to him to tarry and abide there than in any other place in Ireland; for it is always thither, he came back after having been everywhere else in Ireland, nor would he leave it except through fear and terror. Suibhne dwelt there that night, and on the morrow morning Loingseachan came seeking him. Some say that Loingseachan was Suibhne's mother's son, others that he was a foster brother, but, whichever he was, his concern for Suibhne was great, for he Suibhne went off three times in madness and thrice he brought him back. This time Longseachan was seeking him in the valley, and he found the track of his feet by the brink of the stream of which he was wont to eat the watercress. He also found the branches that used to break under his feet as he changed from the top of onto another. That day, however, he did not find the madman, so he went into a deserted house in the valley, and there he fell into deep sleep after the great labor of the pursuit of Suibhne whom he was seeking. Then it was Suibhne who came upon his track so that he reached the house, and there he heard Loingseachan's snore; so he uttered this lay:

…………………….

After that lay he came the next night to Loingseachan's mill which was being watched over by one old woman, Lonnog, daughter of Dubh Dithribh, mother of Loignseachan's wife. Suibhne went into the house to her and she gave him morsels [of bread ?], and for a long time in that manner he kept visiting the mill. One day Loingseachan set out after him, when he saw him by the mill-stream, and he went therefore to speak to the old woman, that is, his wife's mother, Lonnog. ‘Has Suibhne come to the mill, woman?’ said Loingseachan. ‘He was here last night,’ said the woman. Loingseachan then put on the woman's garment and remained in the mill after her; that night Suibhne came to the mill and he recognized Loingseachan. When he saw his eyes, he sprang away from him at once out through the skylight of the house, saying: ‘Pitiful is your pursuit of me, Loingseachan, chasing me from my place and from each spot dearest to me in Ireland; and as Ronan does not allow me to trust you, it is tiresome and importunate of you to be following me’; and he made this lay:

…………………..

‘Sad is the disgrace you would put upon me thinking that you are doing the right thing, Loingseachan,’ said he; ‘do not continue annoying me further, but go to your house and I will go on to where Eorann is.’

Now, his wife Eorann at the time was dwelling with Guaire, son of Congal, son of Scannlan, a rival king………..

………….. ……………………. ……………………………………. ……………………………………………………………..

A gleam of reason came to him then, and he set out towards his country to entrust himself to his people and abide with them. But at that time it was revealed to Ronan that Suibhne had recovered his reason and that he was going to his country to abide among his folk; whereupon Ronan said: ‘I entreat the noble, almighty king that persecutor may not be able to approach the church to persecute it again as he once did, and, until his soul has parted from his body, may there be no help or relief to him from the vengeance which God inflicted on him in revenge for the dishonor done to His people, so that no other like tyrant after him may inflict similar outrage on the Lord or on His people.’

God heard Ronan's prayer, for when Suibhne came to the center of Fuat’s mountains he stopped still there, and a strange apparition appeared to him at midnight; even trunks, headless and red, and heads without bodies, and five bristling, gray heads without body or trunk among them, screaming and leaping this way and that about the road. When he came among them he heard them talking to each other, and this is what they were saying: ‘He is a madman,’ said the first head; ‘a madman of Ulster,’ said the second head; ‘follow him well,’ said the third head; ‘may the pursuit be long,’ said the fourth head; ‘until he reaches the sea,’ said the fifth head. They rose forth together towards him. He soared aloft in front of them (passing) from a thicket to a thicket, and no matter how vast was the gorge before him he would not cross it, but would leap from one edge of it to another, and from the summit of the hill to the summit of the other ??????

Great was the terror, the crying and wailing, the screaming and crying aloud, the din and tumult of the heads after him as they were clutching and eagerly pursuing him. Such were the force and swiftness of that pursuit that the heads leaped on his calves, his hocks, his thighs, his shoulders, and his nape, so that the impact of head against head, and the clashing of all against the side of the trees and of the rocks, against the surface and the earth, seemed to him like the rush of a wild torrent from the breast of a high mountain; nor did they cease until he escaped from them into the clouds of the sky ???

Then they parted from him, both goat heads and dog heads—for it seemed to him that these were all intermingled with the other heads pursuing him. The faoinneal no foluamhuin ??? the wandering and legs trembling ??? which he had ever before done were as nothing in comparison with this, for he would not rest long enough to take a drink to the end of three fortnights after that until he came one night to the summit of Eidhneach’s mountain; and that night he rested there on the top of a tree until

the morning. He then began lamenting grievously and said: ‘Wretched indeed is it with me tonight after [my meeting with] the hag and the heads on Fuat’s mountain, and yet it is right that I should be as I am, because of the many to whom I myself have done harm’; and whereupon he said:

Mournful am I tonight,

I am sad and wretched,

My side is naked,

Etc.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

One day it happened that he went to Druim Larainn in Connaught where he ate green-topped watercress of the church by the brink of the green-flecked well and he drank some of its water after. A cleric came out of the church and he was indignant and resentful towards the madman for eating the food which he himself used to eat, and he said that it was happy and contented Suibhne was in the yew tree after taking his meal from himself.

‘Sad is that saying, o cleric,’ said Suibhne, ‘for I am the most discontented and unhappy creature in the world, for neither rest nor slumber comes on my eyes for fear of my being slain because……

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

At length Suibhne one day came along to the place where Moling was, even Teach Moling. The psalter of Kevin was at the time in front of Moling as he was reading it to the students. In the cleric's presence Suibhne then came to the brink of the fountain and began to eat watercress.

‘O mad one, that is eating early !’

Moling spoke and Suibhne answered him:

........................... ..............................................................................................................................

A death-swoon came on Suibhne then, Moling, attended by his clerics, rose, and each man placed a stone on Suibhne's tomb.

‘Dear in sooth is he whose tomb this is,’ said Moling; ‘often were we two—happy times!—conversing one with the other along this pathway. Delightful to me was it to behold Suibhne—he whose tomb this is—at yonder well. The Madman's Well is its name, for often would he eat of its watercress and drink its water (so) the well is named after him. Dear too, every other place that Suibhne used to frequent’; whereupon Moling said:

The tomb of Suibhne here!

Remembrance of him has wrung my heart!

…………………..

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Here takes place an admirable poem about the beauty of nature and of wild life, in the form of a dialog between Moling and Suibhne.

----------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------

But thereafter, Suibhne rose out of his swoon and Moling taking him by the hand the two proceeded to the door of the church. When Suibhne placed his shoulders against the doorpost, he breathed a loud sigh and his soul fled to Heaven, then he was buried honorably by Moling.

So far, some of the tales and adventures of Suibhne son of Colman Cuar, king of Dal Araidhi.

Finis. End.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 26.

Foluamain. Gaelic word which leaves us perplex. The electronic dictionary of the Irish language translates it as follows:

Moving to and fro, fluttering, flying, hovering, quivering, whizzing, panic-stricken. Indicate at the very least a sudden ability to perform surprising leaps or jumps, a little like our great national hero Hesus Cuchulainn.

The persecutions endured for the Lord’s sake by the first Christians in Ireland. Belong to the lies usual to this religion. And just as Muslims are always presented by themselves as victims, forced to conquer a vast empire only to defend themselves (according to them it is always a self-defense ), Christians too always present themselves as innocent martyrs. But the history, the true one, of the accession to the power of their religion with the Roman Emperor Constantine, does not show that at all. We will return there more in detail in a later lesson. The movie by Alejandro Amenabar (Agora) about the martyrdom of the pagan saint Hypatia lapidated with sherds by a pack of furious Christian monks (in Egypt) in any case gives us a little idea of the true truth in connection with these gentle and peaceful Coptic Christian lambs, who nevertheless found their masters from now on in the person of these other great faithful of the religion of love forgiveness and mercy which is Islam.

The bell. One can suppose that St Ronan walked around the territory in question by shaking his bell in order to surround it with a kind of magic protection. But apparently without the authorization of the king of the country.

The contempt and dishonor. The holy man who is Ronan is therefore not especially humble and in a mood to forgive, he is a little like everyone, you and me.

The psalter. Perhaps this was not a simple paper cluster covered with human squiggles like the Quran or the Bible but a magic book like the famous Cathach of St Columba of Iona. Tradition has that St Columba carried it out in 561, as being a copy of a book borrowed from St Finian (it was enough to walk with it around an army so that the aforementioned army wins victory). These stories of magic psalters in any case illustrate well how Christians controlled the new media of the time, the writing and the book.

The battle of Mag Rath fought in 637 was very important. It opposed to the king of the North Ui Néill , Domhnall mac Aedh, the Dál Riata of Domhnall Brecc as well as the Cruthin or Picts of the Dál nAraid in the person of Congal Cláen.Some authors think that the Suibhne of this legend is in fact Congal Cláen or Cáech, king of the Dál nAraidi, the main Cruthin people of the area, which will become for one year or two high king of Tara.

The consequences of the battle of Magh Rath were, on the one hand, the rout of the Cruithin with the death of Congal Cláen, and, on the other hand, the end of the influence of the Dál Riata in Northern Ireland, replaced by the domination of the Uí Néill clan.

As a result the side of the overcome people perhaps became that of the pagans after the defeat.

The overcome people of the battle of Mag Rath will be therefore by the means of the various forging of History worked out by the Christians, retrospectively but systematically compared to the villains, i.e. with some coarse pagans by all these not very scrupulous monks, they will be demonized in their version of History (we already have had the opportunity to see, since Pontius Pilate that the Christians had, let us say a rather paradoxical design of the truth) whereas, if that is, in the beginning the unhappy historical Suibhne was well also a Christian, just like his wife. Although Christian therefore, he would have been retrospectively rejected into the side of the pagans by the later Christian authors, a side of caricatural and farcical pagans especially invented for the needs of the political cause of the Ui Neill. In short, under the misleading writing of Christians, the side of overcome people will become little by little the side of most odious pagans, symbolized by Suibhne (it is necessary indeed, it is obvious, to be insane, to not blindly accept the magic all-might of the book of the god of Abraham of

Isaac of Jacob and of Muhammad, look. It is the best means of finishing one’s life alone like an animal). Our religion to us being only a religion of truth, it was necessary these things are said!

After the battle of Magh Rath scribes began therefore to revisit and rearrange the events which make the supremacy of the clan of the official winners the Uí Néill, possible, then with the drafting of the history of Ireland, particularly the famous "Lebor Gabála Érenn,” which is only a work of propaganda according to Professor Daibhi Ó Cróinín (a new history of Ireland), completely comparable with the legend of Moses we will add.

That destruction and extinction may be their lot the day they shall behold this psalter. As we have already pointed it , this story resembles much that of the Cathach of St Columba of Iona which guaranteed victory to the clan who had it. But how many times it will be necessary to repeat to these idolatrous people of one book besides that what matters it is not the letter which makes increasingly stupider than he is the one who does not take off himself from it, but the spirit. Or spiritual ancestors the high knowers of Antiquity were well right indeed to consider that most important, i.e., the spirit, was not to be left with a dead tree (some paper) but to another spirit: the memory. And if books are needed, let us take 12 of them like the Fenians and don’t be satisfied with one! It is too dangerous for the freedom of thought, it is too dangerous for the balance of mankind.

“They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses; accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it lawful to commit these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek characters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons; because they neither desire.... nor those who learn among them, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing; since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of the memory....They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many elements respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods” (Caesar B.G. book VI chapter XIV).

Thereupon Ronan came to Magh Rath to make peace. Saint Ronan therefore intervenes in the conflict. The chances are high that it was like St Kentigern/Mungo at the time of the battle of Arthuret /Ardderyd in 573 when Merlin became mad, after the death of his guard and patron the last pagan king of Great Britain (of Strathclyde more precisely) called Gwenddoleu, i.e., at the sides of the ones and against the others.

Sprinkling holy water on the hosts ??? Does Saint Ronan intend this Christian magic to the soldiers of the two sides or only for those of a particular side ?? It is true that on the German belts of the Great War was also engraved the inscription “Gott mit uns » and that the Muslim crusaders or moonaders exclaim, “Allahu Akbar.” The god of love of forgiveness and mercy is definitely not very fussy but as by chance it is always after, that men realize he was alongside the victor. God is always alongside the victor by definition.

Suainemh. Gaelic word probably designating a spear thrower, which the Romans called amentum.

Uradhran and Telli. In what concerns us, these two apparently proper nouns leave us very perplex. Some rival kings ?

Heads without body some headless bodies. Considering the o’clock (in middle of the night) we can, of course, think it is perhaps a nightmare caused by the powerful magic of the faithful servant of the god of love that was St Ronan. The whole story gives an idea of the power of the Christian magic at the time. There was indeed what to make somebody mad.

Chenn ghabhair & cenn chon, goat heads and dog heads therefore seem to be a powerful means of the Christian magic in Ireland.

When Suibhne placed his shoulders against the doorpost … cf the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector.

Gospel according to Luke chapter 18. The tax collector (Suibhne) stands in the entry of the Temple, the pharisee (St Ronan) occupies with hubris the first place. The moral of this story is that it is, of course, not St Ronan who behaves as a true Christian but saint Moling.

THE LEGEND OF MONGAN.

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 27.

The virginal conception of the Hesus Cuchulainn was often questioned, just like the possibility for him to be reincarnated , on earth, as he wishes. Some people even went as far to write that all that was non-Celtic. The text which follows shows the opposite. It is the manuscript entitled Compert Mongain ocus Serc Duibe-Lacha do Mongan, which was preserved to us by the book of Fermoy (15th century). But the history itself must be older (14th ?)

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THE CONCEPTION OF MONGAN.

Once upon a time Fiachna Finn, son of Baedan, son of Murchertach, son of Muredach, son of Eogan, son of Niall, went forth from Ireland, until he came to the kingdom of Loccolandon (Lochlann), over which Eolgarg Mor; son of Magar, was at that time king. There he found great respect and love and honor. And he was not long there, when a disease seized the king of Loccolandon (Lochlann), who asked of his leeches and physicians what would help him. They told him there was in the world nothing that would help him, save a red-eared shining-white cow, which was to be boiled for him. The people of Lochlann searched for the cow, and there was found the single cow of the Black Hag (Caillech Dub). Another cow was offered to her in its stead, but the hag refused. Then four were offered to her, viz., one cow for every foot, but the hag would not accept any other condition but that Fiachna should become security. Now this was the hour and the time that - messengers came for Fiachna Finn, the son of Baetan, he went with them, and took the kingship of Ulaid, or one year.

One day at the end of a year he heard cries of distress in front of the fort, and he told (his men) to go and see who made those cries, then to let the person that made them into the house. There was the hag from Loccolandon (from Scandinavia) come to demand her security. Fiachna knew her, bade her welcome, and asked for tidings of her.

'Evil tidings I have,' said the hag. 'The king of Loccolandon has deceived me in the matter of the four cows that were promised to me for my cow'

'I will give you four cows on his behalf, O hag,' said Fiachna.

But the hag said she would not take them.

'I will give twenty cows on his behalf,' said Fiachna.

'I shall not take them,' said the hag.

'I will give four times twenty cows,' said Fiachna, 'twenty kine for each cow'

'By my word,' said the hag, 'if all the kine of the province of the kingdom of Ulidia were given to me, I should not take them, until you come yourself to make war upon the king of Loccolandon. As I have come to you from the east, so do you come on a voyage with me.'

Then Fiachna assembled the nobles of Ulidia until he had ten equally large battalions, and went and announced battle to the men of Loccolandon. And they were three days a-gathering unto the battle. Then combat was made by the king of Loccolandon on the men of Ireland. And three hundred warriors fell by Fiachna in the fight. Venomous (rabid ?) sheep were let out of the king of Loccolandon's tent against them, and on that day three hundred warriors fell by the sheep, and three hundred warriors fell on the second day and three hundred on the third day. That was grievous to Fiachna, and he said: 'Sad is the journey on which we have come, if it is for having our people killed by the sheep. For if they had fallen in battle or in combat by the host of Loccolandon, we should not deem their fall a disgrace, for they would avenge themselves. Give me,' said he, 'my arms and my dress that I may myself go to fight against the sheep.'

'Do not say that, O King,' said they, for it is not meet that you should go to fight against them.'

'By my word,' said Fiachna, no more of the men of Ireland will fall by them till I myself go to fight against the sheep; and if I am destined to find death there, I shall find it, for it is impossible to avoid fate; and if not, the sheep will fall by me.'

As they were thus conversing, they saw a single tall warlike man coming towards them. He wore a green cloak of one color, and a brooch of white silver in the cloak over his breast, and a satin shirt next his white skin. A circlet of gold around his hair, and two sandals of gold under his feet. The warrior said him: 'What reward would you give to him who would keep the sheep from you?'

'By my word,' said Fiachna, '[whatever you ask], provided I have it, I should give it'

'You will have it to give,' said the warrior, and I shall tell you what.'

'Say the choice,' said Fiachna.

'I shall say it,' said he; 'give me that ring of gold on your finger as a token of recognition when I go to Ireland to your wife to sleep with her.'

'By my word,' said Fiachna, 'I would not let one man of the men of Ireland fall on account of that condition.'

'It shall be none the worse for you; for a glorious child shall be begotten by me there, and from you he will be named, even Mongan the Fair (Find), son of Fiachna the Fair (Finn). And I shall go there in your shape, so that your wife will not be defiled by it. I am Belin/Belen/Barinthu the Mannish (from the Isle of Man) , son of Lero, and you will seize the kingship of Loccolandon and of the Saxons and Britons.'

Then the warrior took a venomous (rabid ?) hound out of his cloak, and a chain upon it, and said: 'By my word, not a single sheep shall carry its head from him to the fortress of the king of Loccolandon, and he will kill three hundred of the hosts of Loccolandon, and you will have what' will come of it.'

The warrior went to Ireland, in the shape of Fiachna himself he slept with Fiachna's wife, and in that night she became pregnant. On that day the sheep and three hundred of the nobles of Loccolandon fell by the dog, and Fiachna seized the kingship of Loccolandon and of the Saxons and Britons.

THE BIRTH OF MONGAN (compert Mongain : 10th century ?)

Fiachna returned to his country, and the woman bore a son, even Mongan son of Fiachna. He thanked his wife for what she had done for him, and she confessed all her adventures. So that this Mongan is a son of Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan son of Lero , though he is called Mongan son of Fiachna. For when the stranger went from her in the morning, he left a quatrain with Mongan’s mother, saying:

" I go home,

The pure pale morning draws near:

Belin/Belen/Barinthus the Mannish (from the Isle of Man) son of Lir

Is the name of him who came to you .”

Now Fiachna the Fair had an attendant, whose name was the Daim, and in that (same) night his wife brought forth a son. They were christened together, the son of Fiachna was named Mongan, and the son of the attendant was named the son of the Daim .

As to the hag, Fiachna gave her her due, viz., seven castles with their territory and land, and a hundred every cattle.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 28.

Lochlann. Old Celtic Loccolandon. Scandinavia.

The hundred is a fight formation being equivalent to a company of soldiers.

In the shape of Fiachna. To take the appearance of the person they want therefore is a part of the powers or cumachta of the gods, according to Celtic mythology.

Christened. The word can seem passably astonishing considering the continuation of the events but the Gaelic word “baisdedh” well has this meaning. There are therefore only two possible solutions, either it is a not very sound term to designate a still pagan ceremony of the name, or Mongan and the son of the Daim will become apostates while becoming adult. We incline towards the first assumption. Regarding the pagan ceremonies of name, to see our lesson on the rituals.

A STORY VARIANT FROM WHICH IT IS INFERRED THAT MONGAN WAS VINDOS CAMULOGENOS (FINN MAC CUMAILL) AND TELLING THAT IT IS BECAUSE OF HIM THAT FOTHAD AIRDECH WAS KILLED.

Book of the dun cow and Yellow Book of Lecan (10th century).

Scél asa m-berer co m-bad hé Find mac Cumaill Mongan, ocus ani dia fil aided Fothaid Airgdig a scél so sis.

Mongan was in his great fortress on the plain of Linne in his kingship. To him went Forgoll the bard. Through him many a married couple complained to Mongan. Every night the bard would recite a story to Mongan. So great was his lore that they were thus from Samon (ios) to Beltene. He received gifts and food from Mongan.

One day Mongan asked his bard what the death of Fothad Airgdech was. Forgoll said he was slain at Duffry in Leinster. Mongan said it was false. The poet said he would curse him with his lampoons, and he would satirize his father and his mother and his grandfather, and he would sing spells upon their waters, so that fish should not be caught in their river mouths. He would put a jinx on their woods, so that they should not give fruit, upon their plains, so that they should be barren forever of any produce. Mongan promised him his will of precious things as far as the value of seven cumals, or twice seven bond maids, or three times seven. At last he offered him one third, or one half of his land, or his whole land; at last anything save only his own liberty with that of his wife Breothigernd, at the end of a three-day deadline. The bard refused all except as regards the woman. For the sake of his honor Mongan consented. There the woman was sorrowful. The tear was not taken from her cheek. Mongan told her not to be sorrowful, help would, of course, come to them.

So it came to the third day. The bard began to enforce his seizure. Mongan told him to wait till the evening. He and his wife were in their solarium (grianan). The woman wept as her surrender drew near and she saw no help. Mongan said: “Be not sorrowful, woman. He who is even now coming to our help, I hear his feet in the Labrinne.”

They waited awhile. Again the woman wept. “Weep not, woman! He who is now coming to our help, I hear his feet in the Main.”

they were waiting for two hours. She would weep, and he would still say: “Weep not, woman. He who is now coming to our help, I hear his feet in the Laune, in Lake Lein, in the Samair between Ui Fidgente and Aradu, in the Suir on the plain of Femun in Munster, in the Echuir, in the Barrow, in the Liffey, in the Boyne, in the Dee, in the Tuarthesc, in the Snam of Ainech, in the Nid, in the Rig, in the Olarbi in front of our great fortress.”

When night came to them, Mongan was on his couch in his castle, and his wife at his right hand, and she was sorrowful. The bard was summoning them by their sureties and their bonds. While they were there, a man was announced approaching the enclosure from the south. His cloak was in a fold around him, and in his hand a headless spear shaft that was not small. By that shaft he leaped across

the three ramparts, so that he landed in the middle of the esplanade, thence into the middle of the castle, thence between Mongan and the wall at his pillow. The bard was in the back of the room in front of the king. The seizure was in the process in the house before the warrior that had come.

“What is the matter here?” said he.

“I and the bard yonder,” said Mongan, “have made a wager about the death of Fothad Airgdech. He said it was at Duffry in Leinster and I said that was false.”

The warrior said the bard was wrong.

“It shall be ??? ” said the bard.

“Ni baa son,” ol int oclach. “Proimfithir-bamar-ni lat-su, la Find,” ol int oclach.

“Adautt ! ” ol Mongan, “ni maith sin ! ”

“It is not good, said the warrior and I shall prove it. I was with you, i.e., with Find.”

“Hush!” said Mongan, “that is not fair !”

“We were with Find, then,” said the unknown warrior. “We came from Scotland. We met with Fothad Airgdech yonder on the Larne River. There we fought a battle. I made a cast at him, so that the spear passed through him and went into the earth beyond him and left its iron head in the earth. Here is the shaft that was in that spear. The bare stone from which I made that cast will be found, and the iron head will be found in the earth, and the tomb of Fothad Airgdech will be found a little to the east of it. A grave stone (chloche) is about him there in the earth. There, upon the chest, are his two rings of silver, his two arm-rings, and his neck torc of silver. And by his tomb there is a stone pillar. From the earth to the end of this stone, there is an inscription in oghamic runes.This is what it says: This is Eochaid Airgdech. Caletios/Cailte slew me in an encounter against Finn.”

They went with the warrior. Everything was found thus. It was Caletios/Cailte, Find’s foster son, that had come to them. Ba hé Find dano inti Mongan, acht nad leic a forndisse ??????????

And Mongan, however, was Find, though he would not let it be told ????

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 29.

Samon (ios) = November 1st.

Beltene = May 1st.

Vindos Camulogenos, Finn Mac Cumaill in Gaelic language, is a demigod leader of the errant knighthood of the Fenians. We will return to his case.

A cumal = 5 heads of cattle of median value.

Ba hé Find dano inti Mongan, acht nad leic a forndisse??????????

The name of Mongan appears once, and only once, in complete formation: Mongan Find mac Fiachna Find: “Mongan the fair , son of Fiachna the fair ,” and the adjectival nickname Finn (in more recent writing) also means “white.” Only a fragment of this text, all in all , maintains that Mongan is Find, son of Cumall. It is the second, in its title, and only in paragraph 6, without an excessive clarity. Caletios/Cailte, the ghost, speaks to contradict Forgoll: “Proimfithir-bamar-ni lat-su, la Find, ol int oclach “(I was then with you, i.e., with Finn, said the warrior) and “Bamar-ni Find tra, ol sé. Dulodmar di Albae” (I was with Find and we returned from Scotland).

That can be understood as an unambiguous allusion to the raid of Fiachna Find in Scotland.

Then, in paragraph 7, we read: “Ba hé Find dano inti Mongan acht nad leic a forndisse…” (And Mongan was Find, though he would not let it be told. )

Would there have been not in fact a confusion of the nickname of Fiachna Find and Mongan Find, with the name of Finn mac Cumail?

This fragment of the story is arranged in view of its conclusion: the identity of Finn and Mongan. The means is the stubbornness of the bard Forgoll who makes a mistake , and refuses to admit it.

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Finn was born twice, and during his second life, when he was called Mongan, he remembered the first one, during which his name was Finn. Such was also the story of Tuan mac Cairill. The phenomenon is identical to that which offers to us Mongan preserving the memory of what he had seen when he was Finn.

Tuan and Finn are in the Irish legend exceptions to the rule which is the non-reincarnation.

It is not obligatory nor even usual that a dead is born a second time, and the reincarnation on this earth, of the soul/mind of a deceased person , is not very common, but the fact happened: it is possible. Especially when they are great initiates eager to come to assistance to their human brothers remained on earth: the druidic semnothei called bodhisattvas in the Far East. As for the punishing reincarnations they are even rarer, a few cases per centuries of soul/minds unable to go further in the anteroom of Heaven and who return on Earth in the shape of bacuceos (through exit airlocks of the kind Donnotegia/Tech Duinn in Ireland, Anderodubno/Annwn in Wales, etc.).

Hence the resemblance that some ancient authors thought to recognize between the druidic beliefs and the teaching of Pythagoras. They have even alleged that these resemblances went so far as identity.

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DUBLACHA’S LOVE FOR MONGAN.

There was another warrior reigning together with Fiachna the Fair, to wit Fiachna the Black, son of Deman, who lay heavily on his condominium. And to him in the same night a daughter was born, to whom the name Dublacha White-hand was given, and Mongan and Dublacha were affianced to each other. When Mongan was three-night-old, Belin/Belen/Barinthus the Mannish (from the Isle of Man) came for him and took him with him to bring him up in the Land of Promise, and vowed that he would not let him back into Ireland before he were twelve years of age.

Now as to Fiachna the Black, son of Deman, he watched his opportunity, and when he found that Fiachna the Fair, son of Baedan, had with him but a small host, he went up to his stronghold, and burnt and destroyed it, killed Fiachna himself, and seized the kingship over the Ulaid by force. And all the men of Ulidia desired Mongan to be brought to them when he was six years old, but Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan did not bring him among the Ulaid till he had completed sixteen years. And then he came to Ulidia, and the Ulaid made peace between themselves and Fiachna the Black, to wit, one half of Ulidia to Mongan, and Dublacha to be his wife and consort in compensation for his father. And it was done so.

One day while Mongan and his wife were playing tablut, they saw a dark black-tufted little monk (cleirchin) at the door, who said: 'This silence in which you are, O Mongan, is not what becomes a king of Ulaid, not to go to avenge your father on Fiachna the Black, son of Deman, though Dublacha may think it wrong to tell you so. For he now has but a small host with him; come with me thither, let us burn the fortress, and let us kill Fiachna.'

'There is no knowing what omen there may be on that saying o monk,' said Mongan, 'but we shall go with you.' And thus it was done, for Fiachna the Black was killed by them. Mongan seized the whole kingship of Ulidia, the little cleric who had done the treason was Manannan the great and mighty.

The noble Ulaid were gathered to Mongan, and he said to them: 'I desire to go to seek boons (faighde) from the provincial kings, that I may get gold and silver and wealth to give away.'

'That is a good plan,' said they. And he went forth into the provinces of Ireland until he came to Leinster. The king of Leinster at that time was Brandubh son of Echach. He gave a hearty welcome to the king of Ulaid, and they slept that night in the place. When Mongan awoke on the morrow, he saw fifty white red-eared kine, and a white calf by the side of each cow, and as soon as he saw them he was in love with them. The king of Leinster observed him and said to him: 'You are in love with the kine, O great king.'

'By my word,' said Mongan, 'save the kingdom of Ulidia, I never saw anything that I would rather have than them.'

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'By my word,' said the king of Leinster, 'they are a match for Dublacha, for she is the one woman that is most beautiful in Ireland, and those kine are the most beautiful cattle in Ireland, and on no condition in the world would I give them except on our making friendship without refusal.'

They did so, and each bound the other. Mongan went home and took his thrice fifty white cows with him. Dublacha asked: 'What are the cattle that are the most beautiful that I ever saw and he who got them. . . ???? for no man got them except for . . . . ????'

Mongan told her therefore how he had obtained the kine. But they were not long there when they saw hosts approaching the place, and he that was there, even the king of Leinster.

'What have you come to seek?' said Mongan. 'For, by my word, if what you seek be in the province of Ulidia, you will have it.'

'It is, then,' said the king of Leinster. 'To seek Dublacha have I come.'

Dead silence fell upon Mongan. Then he said : 'I have never heard of anyone giving away his wife.'

'Yough you have not heard of it,' said Dublacha, 'give her, for honor is more lasting than life.'

Anger seized Mongan, but he allowed the king of Leinster to take Dublacha with him. Dublacha called the king of Leinster aside and said to him: 'Do you know, O great king of Leinster, that half of the men of Ulidia would fall for my sake, except I had already given love to you? But by my word! I shall not go with you until you grant me the request of my own lips.'

'What is the request?' said the king of Leinster.

'Your word to fulfill it!' said she.

The king of Leinster gave his word, on condition that …. ???

'Then, said Dublacha, 'I desire that until the end of one year we be not brought for one night into the same house, and if in the course of a day you come into the same house with me, that you should not sit in the same chair with me, but sit in a chair over against me, for I fear the exceeding great love which I have bestowed upon you, that you may hate me, and that I may not again be acceptable to my own husband; but if we are a-courting each other during this coming year, our love will not recede.'

The king of Leinster granted her that condition, and he took her to his house, and there she was for a while. And for that while Mongan was in a wasting sickness continually. In the night in which Mongan had taken Dublacha as a wife, the son of the Daimh had married her foster sister, who was her trusty attendant, and therefore she had gone into Leinster with Dublacha. So one day the son of the Daim came into the house where Mongan was, and said: 'Things are in a bad way with you, O Mongan, evil was your journey into the Land of Promise to the house of Belin/Belen/Barinthus the Mannish (of the Isle of Man) since you have learned nothing there, except consuming food and practicing foolish things, and it is unfair to me that my wife has been taken into Leinster, since I have not made "friendship without refusal" stupidly with the king of Leinster's attendant, as you did with the king of Leinster, thus being unable to follow your wife.'

'No one deems that worse than I myself,' said Mongan.

And Mongan said to the son of the Daim: 'Go,to the entrance (uaimh) of the door, in which we left the shoulder basket of ???? and put a sod from Ireland and another from Scotland in it, that I may go with you on your back; for the king of Leinster will ask of his druids news of me, and they will say that I am with one foot in Ireland’s land, and with the other in Scotland’s land, and he will think consequently that as long as I am like that he need not fear me.'

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 30.

Dublacha means black duck in Gaelic language.

A little monk. The Gaelic term is categorical: it refers well to a Christian ecclesiastical state. Mongan would have been therefore Christian or at least would have been in touch with Christians??? The play that this text makes the great god Belin/Belen/Barinthus especially venerated on the Isle of Man at the time, play, is, however, at the very least strange. A umpteenth forging of the original texts by Christian copyists??

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The druids of the king of Leinster….According to this text, the king of Leinster would therefore have had still druids at the time. It is incompatible with the continuation of the story.

The first official bishop in Ireland seems to have been called Palladius, died circa 431. He would have been sent on a special assignment in the island by the pope Celestine I. His name is especially associated with the Leinster, particularly with the abbey of Clonard in County Meath. St Patrick seems to be arrived only later and to have especially worked in Ulster.

But the great turning point in the religious history of Ireland will be the battle of Cul Dreimhne fought for a magic psalter, the Cathach (which was supposed to give victory to its owners) by the partisans of St Columban of Iona in the year 563 and the assembly or Synod of Druim Cett in 575 which was the frame of his final triumph (St Columban of Iona indeed settled there the destiny of the veledae or of the last druids, of more literary than spiritual tendencies).

The day will consequently be won for Christianity even if druids still seem to have been tolerated at the court of the Irish high king Domnall Hua Neill at the end of the 10th century (955-978).

At least it is what we can deduce from the existence still at the time, in the repertory of the great Irish “poets,” of the imbas forosnai, of the teinm loida and of the dichetal do chennaib, however prohibited by St Patrick (cf. the tale of the plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach by Errard Mac Coisé, a poet having lived in the 10th century).

N.B. Since the invention of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine in reality Christians had always been involved in politics. The Breton battle matching the battle of Cul Dreimhne is the battle of Arthuret/Ardderyd in 573 when Merlin became mad after the death of his guard and patron the last pagan king of Great Britain (of Strathclyde more precisely) called Gwenddoleu, overcome by a coalition of Christian princes like Rhydderch Hael, Peredur and Gwrgi of York of the party of saint Kentigern/Mungo. But that we have already seen it.

* We can wonder besides if the high Nazarene rabbi called Jesus crucified with two Zealot accomplices in the first half of the first century was also not involved, in politics (a nationalist uprising against Rome???)

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And in that way they set out. And that was the hour and time in which the feast of Mag-Liffe was held in Leinster, and they came to the Plain of the church of Chamain, and there beheld the multitudes and the king of Leinster going past them to the feast, they recognized him in the hosts.

'Woe (truag) to us, O son of the Daim,' said Mongan, 'evil is the journey on which we have come.'

They saw a holy man (naemcléirech) going so past them, even Tibraide, the priest of Cell Chamain, with his four gospels (chetair soisgéla) in his own hand, and the satchel for carrying them upon the back of a cleric by his side : they were performing their religious service. Wonder seized the son of Daim as to what the cleric said, and it is why he kept asking Mongan: 'What did he make?'

Mongan said it was reading, and he asked the son of the Daim whether he understood a little of it.

'I do not understand,' said son of the Daim 'except that the man at his back says, "Amen, amen."'

Thereupon Mongan shaped a large river through the midst of the plain in front of Tibraide, and a large bridge across it. And Tibraide marveled at that and began to bless himself. '’Tis here,' he said, 'my father was born and my grandfather, and never did I see a river here. But as the river has gotten there, it is well there is a bridge across it.' They proceeded to the bridge, but when they had reached its middle, it vanished under them, Mongan snatched the gospels out of Tibraide's hand, and sent them down the river. Then he asked the son of the Daim whether he should drown them.

'Of course, let them be drowned!' said the son of the Daim.

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'We will not do it,' said Mongan. 'We will let them down the river the length of a league, till we have done our task in the fortress.'

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 31.

His four gospels. Why four Gospels and not three or five? We will reconsider on the progressive development of the Christian canon and particularly the reasons which caused the first bishops to accept in addition to the three synoptic ones an almost gnostic Gospel that of John.

The satchel for carrying them upon the back of another cleric . The intention of this remark is clear: Tibraide gives up to a companion heaviest, most painful, most ungrateful, task and reserves for himself lightest, most glorious, the exposition of the sacred book. Such outspokenness , almost licentious, towards the religion, the sacredness or its priests, is at the very least surprising.

Considering the dates it is therefore not impossible to think that Mongan and the Son of the Daim could be baptized, therefore become apostates thereafter considering their behavior at least in this story. It is not the assumption that we accept but finally even if that were… the freedom of thought in religious matter must be total. Each one must be free to embrace or not the religion he wants, even several at the same time. On this point we agree entirely with the great druid that was John Toland. Each one must have the right to think what he wants of such or such religion, even of all the religions. And apostates, fortunately that there were some of them in the History besides, if not Abraham and Muhammad would not have existed (Abraham is well the first of the apostates, no???).

It is true that some apostates of this kind (Abraham Muhammad) Mankind would have done well without them!

We recommend nevertheless our readers to respect the other worships or the other religions… in the precise measurement these other worships or religions respect ours, i.e., respect the philosophical and well-considered paganism and its practices (apart from that of the human sacrifice, of course, which matches no longer something in the evolution of today mankind) especially when, as in the case of Islam and particularly of the pilgrimage in Mecca, they are of pagan origin.

Unlike what Richard Webster in his essay about the blasphemy in 1990 affirms, the claim of an extremely great freedom in the criticism of the dearest to the person's conviction is not the expression of fundamentalism symmetrical to religious fundamentalism. It is on the contrary the higher shape of respect for the human person at the same time as the condition of the civilization progress.

Tolerance must be the respect of the individuals but not that of the ideas or of the beliefs. Freedom of speech applies even and especially to the ideas which run up, shock or worry. Jurisprudence rightly declared anticonstitutional in 1952 the prohibition of a short movie “the Miracle” of Roberto Rossellini, a movie, however, considered as being “blasphemous” by some Christians.

It can exist by definition some philosophical rational and inclusive monotheisms, with a higher god not “jealous,” but here, they are not “Abrahamic,” they are Aryan (of India).

Bhagavad-Gita 9.23-24 about the worshiping of various gods (it is the higher being who speaks).

“ Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kunti, but they do so in a wrong way. I am nevertheless the only enjoyer and the only object of the sacrifice.”

Said in another way, if by chance, you adore other deities, it is in fact nevertheless the higher being that you adore.

In the mass monolatrous religions, on the other hand, the conviction of blasphemy is a central theme since Leviticus,24, 14-16 : Take blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who curses God will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigners or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.”

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And the sentence will be regularly executed over the centuries. See in England the hanging of the Scot Thomas Aikenhead and in France the torture of the knight of La Barre. In Iran, in accordance with Islamic law in force since the revolution of 1979, the persons condemned for apostasy are under penalty of capital punishment. And in 2011, apostasy was still punishable by capital punishment among our allies in Saudi Arabia.

An absurd religion (credo quia absurdum) always led to delimit a sacred field exclusive, therefore excluding, the secular field. And the protection of this sacred field is always characterized by a system of proscription or taboos. It is prohibited for example to think that “God is cruel and unfair,” or to say that “Man made God in his image.”

It is prohibited to declare like did Brennus in Delphi that “the gods, being rich, they must be liberal towards men” or that “the gods stand in no need of riches, as being accustomed rather to bestow them on mortals”… (Justin book XXIV, chapter VI.)

Hundreds of gods' names in the druidic pantheon, 360 deities in the Kaaba in Mecca at the time of Muhammad, there was therefore for all tastes. In the ancient polytheism, the cases of apostasy were to be limited to the shift towards a certain henotheism. But following what mental disorder, what madness, what malfunction of the senses and of the mind, can we imagine even only for a moment that one’s god, the god that you adore, is the single one, the unique one and that the forms of worship dedicated to him, are agreed by him instead of annoying him, are the only ones to please him ?? Agnosticism discreetly tinged with pantheism is the only reasonable reaction on the subject.

Mongan snatched the gospels out of Tibraide's hand………. Why this eagerness of Mongan against Christians??

Let us try an explanation.

He makes fun of the priests and of the Christians because he is undoubtedly very clearly aware of the intellectual and moral superiority of his spirituality or of his weltanschauung compared to that of the newcomers.

Druidism, like all the great religions, had indeed much thought about the true challenge formed by the infinite diversity or complexity of the action and of the presence of the divinity in the world. Because if the being of the beings is well one and single, its manner of acting in the world is, on the other hand, complex even puzzling. He is at the same time, according to the druidic theology, immanent and transcendent, manifested and latent.

Druidic theology did its utmost besides to count his attributes, hence these hundreds gods' name noted down in the inscriptions. These theonyms are as many attributes of a greater god including them all.

Indo-European religion just like the various Neolithic religions even the primordial druidism is incontestably polytheism at the beginning. In the primordial druidism gods are often called upon by groups (triads) or in turn. Primordial druids therefore began by being more sensitive to the multiplicity of the forces which act in the world than to their unity. However in all this thought process the reflection on the basis of the being or of the cosmos appeared already.

« Moreover, not only the druids, but others as well, say that men's souls (psychas in Greek], and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them” (Strabo, geography, book IV, chapter IV, 4).

The ultimate substance of the universe is to be sought in a single principle, the source from which the universe stems by successive materialization and without loss of energy. Druidic reflection will give it later a name, bitos, the being, one and multiple at the same time, the Absolute-beyond-which-there-is-no-more-thing, and that druids, starting from the 6th century before our era, will compare to a universal cosmic soul from which the matter comes out through emanations or condensation. Because matter goes out from spirit just like life goes out from death. The druidic thought is a paradoxical thought, which functions much through oxymoron.

Druidism is therefore monotheism but not a monolatry of Semitic or Abrahamic type, a true, philosophical and considered, monotheism, of an inclusive type (the notion of jealous God is unknown in druidism).

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There is only a deity but its manifestations are multiple, what therefore involves that in druidic speculation, there is no antinomy between God and the gods. The relationship between God and the gods and God is a relation of proceeding. The gods proceed from the Being of beings like the Holy Ghost proceed from God like angels proceed from God.

Some druidic schools entirely reject the religious use of images, others profess that image belongs to the domain of the lower knowledge that it is a part of the illusion which makes us take for absolute some relative phenomena (since everything is relative) and that the only design valid is that of an impersonal supreme being of beings, without attributes, impossible to figuratively depict.

But the majority of the druidic schools regard the religious use of images as pertaining well to the initiatory spiritual pedagogy.

Unlike Judeo-Islamic-Christianity and apart from the few theological schools referred to above, the meditation on the being of beings starting from its figurative representations seems in it regarded as perfectly legitimate.

The worship of the upper being or of being of beings , varies according to whether you view the being of beings with or without its attributes. However the substance of this higher being is not material, even if it is represented in wood, stone or pictures.

It goes without saying that the worship of the being of beings in an embodied form i.e., represented in an illustrated form is not a monolatrous practice. The image representing, of course, only one aspect of the upper being, since it is impossible to represent the divinity in its globality.

The interpretation of the gods and of their role varies according to Druidic Schools, but never leads to an absolute rejection. If the deities were not the very cause of the procreation of our universe or bitos (they do nothing but organize the primordial chaos) they hold, on the other hand, the power of intercession : they can be psychopompous. This design of the world or weltanschauung implies the existence of a hierarchically arranged Panth-eon in which the worship is not directed straight to the being of beings but to lower deities linked to it nevertheless in a way or another, like angels, saints or prophets.

For the almost atheistic Druidic School of Celtiberians however – “Some say the Callaicans have no god, but the Celtiberians and their neighbors on the north offer sacrifices to a nameless god at the seasons of the full moon, by night, in front of the doors of their houses, and whole households dance in chorus and keep it up all night (Strabo, geography, book III, chapter IV,16) -. the gods are only assumptions being used to justify the ritual, according to other Druidic Schools, on the other hand, deities are aspects of the single being of beings and refer in fact to their ultimate principle: the universal soul.

In short, the best of the comparisons or the best of the approximations in order to understand which could be the spirituality of Mongan is by no means to be done with the Pythagoreanism as many neo-druids support it stupidly, but with the Buddhist deism even with the Hindu monotheism.

The Bhagavad-Gita too, maintains (11.43), like Bible or Quran, better even, that the being of beings is alone of its species:

“ You are the father of this complete cosmic manifestation, the worshipable chief, the spiritual master. No one is equal to You, nor can anyone be one with You within the three worlds, You are immeasurable .”

The Sanskrit expression is almost word for word the same one as the Quranic expression: “He is God, the One and Only ” (112.4). Nevertheless the Bhagavad-Gita just like druidism does not draw from this assertion the same conclusions as the Judeo-Islamic-Christianity, namely

1) that the denomination the qualifier or the appellation of God (deivos) can be granted to no other entity but the higher being.

2) that no worship can be paid legitimately and validly to another than him, in his place.

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In the Bhagavad-Gita, the word which designates the gods (deva) also applies to the being of beings, which is simply the Adideva (10.12), the “Urgott,” the primordial God, of whom all the others are the manifestations, the worship which is paid to them is therefore sent to him. See above.

The relationship between the being of beings and the gods is therefore not a relationship of competition or exclusion and jealousy, but a relationship of inclusion. We are there in the presence of two different mental worlds: the human beings who are spiritually Semitic (Pius XI ), the human beings who are spiritually Indo-Europeans.

Two other examples, which are as many reference marks show it to us.

In druidic religions the higher being, the being of beings, is never regarded as a supreme judge or judge in the last resort. Man being a piece of his person, God would judge himself then. It would be therefore nonsense there. According to the whole of Celtic theologies we undergo only always personally, the consequences of our acts in this life, by a kind of poetic justice. And there is no conscious intervention of the being of beings in this process.

In druidic spirituality the attitude of the believer who thinks is that of an attentive host welcoming in his house or more precisely in him, a guest of honor, not that of a slave or of a servant, but in order to be ready to welcome the divinity in him, this worshipper must first to rise on the same level. He does it by means of an almost alchemical ritual transmutation: the meditation.

But as the man cannot, however, claim to welcome the divinity in all its aspects, considering the specific limitations of his nature, the faithful therefore focuses on a particular aspect of the being of beings that which is represented by the image or the statue in front of him and which is used by him as meditation support.

At the end of this process man is nevertheless entirely filled by the divinity. Two results are thus reached:

1) Thus the possibility of communicating with the divinity on the same level is realized for faithful : the worshipper being risen on the same level that the being of beings he can welcome it in him in one of its aspects.

2) Thus are also met the requirements for the worship of the divine image, since the higher being is also localized there. The image became the being of beings in one of its aspects. The non-localized worship of the being of beings can be the fact only of those who reached the ultimate stage of spirituality. Although being ubiquitous , the higher being must indeed be localized to be able to be worshiped, because of the limitations inherent tin our human nature.

The veneration of the divine image ultimately is therefore only the worship of the divinity by itself, a dialog between two manifestations of the same God, since thanks to the ritual, God is simultaneously present in the worshipper and in the divine image.

Mongan being a philosopher of a warlike disposition (a little like Muhammad for his worshippers * besides) he could only be very harsh therefore towards the intolerant under culture of the first Irish Christians. QED. At least such is the assumption that we put forwards in what concerns us to explain the deep-rooted anti-Christianity of this story.

* Cf. the Muslim dogma of isma.

League. The Gaelic term is the word of Latin origin mile, which means “a thousand.” The Roman mile was a thousand steps long. Each step representing two strides of an average legionary. The Roman mile therefore was approximately 1.482 meters long. In the strictest sense of the word, the “league” was long one Roman mile and a half.

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Mongan took on himself the shape of Tibraide, and gave the son of the Daim the shape of the cleric, with a large tonsure on his head, and the satchel on his back. Then they go onward before the king of Leinster, who welcomed Tibraide and gave him a kiss.

"Tis long that I have not seen you, O Tibraide,' he said, 'read the gospel to us and proceed before us to the fortress. Let Ceibhin Cochlach, the attendant of my chariot, go with you. The queen, the wife of the king of Ulaid, is there and would like to confess to you.' Then while Mongan was reading the gospel, the son of the Daim would say, 'Amen, amen!’ The procession said they had never seen a priest who had but one word except that cleric; for he said nothing but amen, amen.

Mongan went onward to the front of the fortress in which Dublacha was. And she recognized him. The son of the Daim said: 'Leave the house all of you, so that the queen may make her confession.' But her maidservant and foster sister ventured out of boldness to stay there. The son of the Daim closed his arms around her and said that no one should be with the queen except the woman that had come with her. Then he closed the solarium (grianan) after them as well as the windows (fuindeog glaine). He lifted his own wife into bed with him, but no sooner than Mongan had taken Dublacha with him. Mongan sat down by her shoulder and gave her three kisses, then carried her into bed with him, and had his will and pleasure of her. But when that had been done, the hag who guarded the jewels, who was in the corner, began to speak; for they had not noticed her until then. Mongan breathed at once on her while making use of his magic powers (anal draidheachta), so that what she had seen was no longer clear to her.

'That is sad,' said the hag, 'do not rob me of Heaven, O holy man! For the thought that I have uttered is wrong, and accept my repentance, for a lying vision has appeared to me, and I dearly love my foster child.'

'Come hither to me, hag!' said Mongan, 'and confess to me.'

The hag arose, and Mongan shaped a sharp spike in the chair. The hag fell upon the spike, and found death.

'A blessing on you for that, O Mongan,' said the queen, 'it is a good thing for us to have killed the woman, for she would have told what we have done.'

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 32.

Mongan breathed at once on her while making use of his magic powers. It is clear that it is a phenomenon of hypnosis; technique apparently very known by former druids since the Gaelic formula is “anal draidheachta”. There exist hundreds, even thousands techniques to hypnotize a subject, and some are short and bossing: “Sleep! ” others more suggestive and therefore progressive. The things become obviously more complicated in the event of collective hypnosis.

Traditional hypnosis is based on suggestions. The person facing the hypnotist undergoes verbal, visual and corporal injunctions.Hypnosis can bring a person, a group or a crowd, to various behaviors as laughing, crying, shouting, or doing some things, according to the suggestion of the one who directs the seance.

Today still, the hypnotists of spectacles who succeed in sending to sleep a whole audience, belong to this school.

We should honestly not confuse hypnosis with the various illusion techniques (conjuring away and so on) used by the conjurers doing their job honestly, i.e., offering to us a spectacle able to delude our senses without there is something supernatural or divine even diabolic in all that. Only “tricks.” But finally to delude or deceive our senses and our brain, its way of making the most of information, isn’t already the very substance of the true magic??

See on this subject the tricks of illusionists or hypnotist from Moses at the court of Pharaoh (Exodus chapter 8).

It should be said that there was at the time in Egypt some great experts in illusions, Jannes and Jambres, for example. We found besides various devices of special effects in certain temples.

The fact is nevertheless that most probable is that Moses himself is an illusion, a myth, a character even less historical than Mongan, because nothing in all this episode of the history (of Hebrews) is confirmed by archeology.

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The great Frenchwoman archeologist Christiane Desroches Noblecourt wrote one day, “It is absurd, on the one hand, to consider the biblical text as a historical document, on the other hand, to reverse the importance of the protagonists: Israel is mentioned only once in a stele of Merneptah , whereas the word Egypt is used 680 times in the Bible….Allusions to Egypt in the Bible are primarily used to feed the internal history of the Hebrews, by giving a vague decoration to certain episodes, and are without relationship with what the current history informs us.”

Because two positive or negative data about the non-historicity of the biblical account were brought by archeology.

It was shown that slavery did not exist in Egypt, and that this aspect of the biblical account too is therefore, from the start, also, not historical.

There is today consensus about the military conquest of Chanaan (it did not take place) and on the first t Israelites (date, place and number), a people whose numerical importance is incompatible with the massive return in Chanaan of Hebrew slaves living in Egypt.

During Akhenaten’s reign (Akhenaten inventor of the monotheism of exclusive and therefore non-inclusive type) , Amarna letters describe Chanaan around 1350 before our era.: the low lands are controlled by city-States in which are Egyptian garrisons. The highlands are divided in territories little peopled, dimorphic ( a part of the population being geographically stable and a part being wandering). The king of Jerusalem, Habdi-Heba complains about the misdeeds, on his territory (some hamlets extending from Bethel to Beersheba) of the Shasu ethnos group and of the Apiru. He claims assistance from Egypt. Conflicts of territories oppose him to Shuwardata, sovereign of Gath, the city-State of the coastal plain. These texts give us, we see it, a detailed knowledge of the cultures which exist around 1350 before our era in Chanaan: no mention is made of the culture of the Hebrews, what shows that Hebrews do not live in Chanaan at the time of Amarna letters.

“Exodus is generally presented as the massive migration of all the ancestors of Israel. A detailed examination of the former traditions reveals that they were originally only the ancestors of the tribe of Ephraim and of a part of that of Manasse, settled around the sanctuary of Shiloh. The excavations in this area reveal that it was very little peopled around 1200 before our era (approximately 3.800 inhabitants?). It is to say that the Hebrew group left from Egypt was not to be numerous: from a few hundreds to a thousand approximately.”

But according to the biblical account, the escape concerns 600.000 men, without counting the children. For Donald B. Redford, the person in charge of the excavations of Mendes in the delta, this figure is aberrant or impossible because, at the time, the population of Egypt is estimated at 2.800.000 people: similar escape would have left therefore a loss impossible to mask in the country. More especially as they are not 600.000 individuals who would have left the country but 600.000 families, what represents a much more significant number of people.

Many Egyptian scribes are attached to the army. At their head is the “supervisor of the scribes of the army.” Amenhotep (son of Hapu), who performs this function during Amenhotep III’s reign , specifies: “I levied the taxes of my lord, my reed pen counted the numbers among the myriads… I levied inductees , and I put the draft in marching order to punish the foreigners in their places… while exerting the monitoring of the movements of the Bedouins.”

The archives are kept, in the capital, by the “chief archivist of the military files.” Each company, each barracks, each fort has its scribe. This multiplicity of the sources made even possible , in some cases, to provide a version somewhat different of the official version. Thus the exceptional cruelty of Merenptah with respect to the inhabitants of the country of Kush (some inhabitants were burnt alive in front of theirs, others had their two hands cut, others had their ears and eyes removed) is known to us by a viceroy. If a clash of major scale had taken place between the Egyptian army and some Hebrew fugitives, it is difficult, taking into account the multitude of scribes, to think that no trace remained about it.

Some intellectuals object that it had to be a minor episode of the Egyptian history and even in the Middle East, that there is therefore no reason it is true that it is mentioned by Egyptians.

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Yous but then where is the epic, where is the confrontation with the pharaoh, where is the spectacular intervention of the Almighty God in all that?

The biblical account does not give a date, but it gives indications making it possible to estimate at which moment the event would have occurred. The calculation led around 1450 before our era. But on this date, like on the former dates, Palestine is under Egyptian military control (garrisons): it is difficult to escape military control in Egypt while taking refuge in Palestine, since military control is also present there. As this control disappears only circa 1300 before our era, it is impossible the Hebrews could conquer Chanaan, at the end of the late Bronze Age , before this date.

Amarna letters also show it: the little king of Jerusalem Abdi-Heba, set up by the Egyptian power, is not a Hebrew.

On the route that the Hebrews would have followed, the biblical account of Exodus is vague (as on the date). This blur is not due to a bad technology: Egypt controls, for a very long time, the localization of the geographical places with a high level of accuracy, including the desert : the described wells were found and the Egyptian routes are very well identified. Desert has the property to preserve intact the remains of pottery which are entrusted to it. After having excavated the area by means of the technique of surface prospecting, archeologists found traces of life at various times, coming before or after the time of Ramesses II, but nothing at the time of his reign (the same technique however made it possible to identify and count 45.000 people distributed on the high plateaus of Chanaan). The excavations of the oasis of Kadesh-Barnea (that of the Bible) showed that there was no stay of the population between 1300 and 1200 before our era.

The cities of the conquest of Chanaan such as Jericho and Ai are identified for a long time, their sites reveal their remains and we can from now on date their constructions and their destruction in a precise way (particularly thanks to recent progress of the carbon dating). We can therefore establish scientifically if, yes or no, there were devastation of an area by a military conquest. But archeologists are from now on unanimous: there was no military conquest of Canaan. The destruction of cities spreads over more than one century and half (and not in the short time of the biblical account).

Following the prospecting of surface undertaken in 1990, it is now established by archeology that the first Israelites appeared starting from 1200 before our era in the highlands. This settlement of a group of people is in conformity with the inscription on the Merenptah stele. This population, which continues the Canaanite culture of the previous time, according to Israel Finkelstein is assessed 45.000 people around - 1000 by means of the usual methods of archeology. The population is assessed by multiplying the number of hectares of each site by a coefficient, 250 persons per hectare for the estimates of Finkelstein, what leads to 60.000 people for the population of the highlands during the Iron Age I. This figuring supposes that all the sites are at the same time occupied, and that the quality of the estimate depends on the exactitude of estimated surfaces as well as on the good choice of the multiplying coefficient (the method can provide only an order of magnitude). Such a weak figure, even vague, reduced to nothing any possibility that these Israelites are the descendants of an important Hebrew population come from elsewhere, for example from Egypt. The progressive development of this peopling, since the very first Israelites of 1200 before our era, can be followed until the time of kings David and Solomon and beyond (there is no consensus, on the other hand, on certain dating of the great buildings which one formerly ascribed a little quickly, to Solomon).

If the discovery was received in 1990 with some skepticism, it is no longer disputed seriously now and there is consensus, among the archeologists, on places, dates and numbers.

The real history of the people of Israelites starts circa 1200 before our era, it is that of which archeology finds the trace: the biblical account of the Hebrews in Egypt, of the come back of this large population in Chanaan, of their military conquest, of their settlement and of their future as Israelites is without relationship with what archeology shows.

This discovery of the very small number of the first Israelites proves the non-historicity of the return into Chanaan of an important population of exiled people (it is proven that there was not arrival in Chanaan of a population numerically important).

Contrarily to what we can still read too often, we know, since Champollion, that slavery strictly speaking did not exist in Egypt. Christiane Desroches Noblecourt emphasized this point since the

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Tutankhamun exposure of 1967 in Paris, without succeeding in making it be taken into account by French intelligentsia.

The practice of the system of forced labors (corvees) - to which the entire people was subjected – made it possible the periodic obtaining of work days for the benefit of the State, the administration or the temples, and made through there useless the resort to slavery. ”

Major construction projects were made by free men. The workmen of Deir el-Medina, builders of the valley of the kings were not slaves, but small civil servants cherished by the Pharaoh and profiting from an individual housing. A text of Ramesses II, delivered to the workmen of the area of Heliopolis, does not leave any doubt about the way in which these workmen were cherished. The 20.000 workmen builders of the pyramid of Chephren, holders of a very advanced technicality, had nothing of slaves and they were well treated. Slavery in Egypt will be introduced only by the Greeks, in Alexandria, and it will be then massively.

The unfree men, either they are prisoners of war or common law criminals, come administratively under the institutional structures and are endowed with their full legal capacities.

According to the Dictionary of Antiquity “They indeed had a civil status, family and property rights; they could enter into contract, be a party in legal proceedings and testify , and they were even fiscally responsible, what eliminates from the start any slave status with regard to them. The alleged contracts of “slave sales ” that we find in the late time are, if we compare these transactions with their context, only some transfers relating to temporary work and services, assessed and quantified beforehand and also being able to be the subject of a transmissible right to use within the framework of inheritances… the exclusion which characterizes slavery does not have its justification in a society which, on the contrary, practiced integration on all levels.

Let us point out, moreover, that the foreign labor force had the same rights as the Egyptian labor force.

Origin of the true single universal God.

“Country of Shasu” is a toponym designating the mountainous region of Seir (Edom) located at the east of the wadi Arabah. It appears several times in the Egyptian documents: it is reproduced particularly in a list of the temple of Soleb built by Amenhotep III (1391/1390-1353/1352 before our era). One of these 6 place names is “ Yahweh. In the land of Shasu.” The lists of the temple of Soleb being established starting from documents of the 15th century, the toponym “ Yahweh, in the land of Shasu” dates back to that time.

The word shasu seems to have been a kind of synonym of wandering Bedouins. Egyptians distinguished them from the Apiru (= Hebrew?? the question marks are necessary). What is certain in every case it is the archeologist Donald Redford, in his essay devoted to Egypt Canaan and Israel in Ancient times, makes Yahweh an Edomite small pagan god. It is up to our reader to make their own idea because all that is not very clear. Even less clear than the adventures of Mongan.

The question is therefore, how is it possible to base on an imposture the belief in a universal god of justice of love and truth??? ??? The action of God in the world would have been more effective if he had chosen for that the Egyptian people instead of the Hebrew then Jewish people . It is time to see what is really this biblical account, a long heinous and racist propaganda intended to cause or maintain the mistrust or the rancor from the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah against the Egyptian Empire its incommensurably powerful neighbor. Propaganda invented in the seventh century before J.C. during the reign of the king of Judah Josiah (2 chronicles 34,14; 2 kings 22,8).

Our religion to us being only a religion of truth (fir), it was necessary these things are said.

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Then they heard a knocking at the door, and ’tis he that was there, even Tibraide, and three times nine men with him. The doorkeepers said: 'We never saw a year in which Tibraides were more plentiful than this year. We have a Tibraide within and a Tibraide without'

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'’It is true,' said Mongan. 'Mongan has come in my shape. Come out, and I will reward you, and let yonder priests be killed, for they are noblemen of Mongan's that have been put into the shape of clerics.'

All the men of the household came out and killed the clerics, and twice nine of them fell. The king of Leinster came to his men and asked them what raid they were on.

'Mongan,' said they, 'has come in Tibraide's shape, but [ the true] Tibraide is in the place.'

Therefore the king of Leinster also charged them, but Tibraide succeeded nevertheless in reaching the church of Chamain, and none of the remaining nine escaped without a wound.

The king of Leinster came to his house, and then Mongan departed. The king asked: 'Where is Tibraide?'

'It was not Tibraide that was here,' said the woman, 'but Mongan, since you will hear it.'

'Were you with Mongan, woman?' said he.

'I was,' said she, 'for he has the greatest claim on me.'

'Send for Tibraide,' said the king, 'for we have chanced to kill his people.'

And Tibraide was brought to them, and Mongan went home and did not come again until the end of a [ moon] quarter, but during that time he was in greatest despondency.

The son of the Daim came to him and said to him: '’Tis wearisome to me to be without my wife through a clown like yourself, since I have not made "friendship without refusal" with the king of Leinster's attendant.'

'Go you for me,' said Mongan, 'to get news to the fortress of Descirt in Bregia, where Dublacha of the White Hand is, for I am not myself able to go.'

Thereafter Dublacha said: 'Let Mongan come to me,for the king of Leinster is on a journey around the country, but Ceibhin Cochlach, the attendant of the king's chariot, is with me. He keeps telling me to escape, and that he himself would come with me. Mongan does not react as vigorously as it would be necessary,” says she. Thus the son of the Daim went therefore to incite Mongan to do something.

Therefore Mongan set out to Raith Descirt in Bregia, and he sat down at the shoulder of the girl. A gilded tablut board was brought to them, and they played. Dublacha bared her breasts to him, and as Mongan looked upon them, he beheld the great paps, which were soft and white, and the middle small and shining-white. And desire of the girl came upon him. Dublacha observed it. Just then the king of Leinster with his hosts was drawing near, and the fortress was opened before him. The king of Leinster asked the girl whether Mongan had been in the house. She said he had been.

'I wish to obtain a request of you, o woman,' said the king of Leinster.

'It will be granted. Except your being with me till the year is ended, there is nothing that you may ask which I will not grant you.'

'If that be so,' said the king, 'tell me when you long for Mongan son of Fiachna; for when Mangan has gone, you will long for him.' ???????????

At the end of the aforementioned quarter [of the moon] Mongan returned home.All the hosts of the place were there at the time but they came out, and Mongan turned back therefore from the fortress in order to go home. But that [moon] quarter he was in greatest languor sickness. The Ultonian nobles assembled into one place and offered Mongan to go with him to give battle for the sake of his wife.

'By my word,' said Mongan, ‘the woman that has been taken from me through my own folly, no woman's son of the men of Ulidia will fall for her sake in bringing her out, until, I myself bring her with me only while using my own craftiness.'

And in that way the year passed by, and Mongan and the son of the Daim set out to the king of Leinster's castle. There were all the nobles of Leinster going into the place and a great feast was being prepared towards the marriage of Dublacha. So he vowed he would take her back before. They came to the green outside the castle.

'O Mongan,' said Mac an Daimh, 'in what shape shall we go this time?'

As they were there, they see the hag of the mill, to wit, Cuimne. She was as tall as a weaver's beam ??? a large chain dog was licking the millstones, and she had a twisted rope around his neck. Brothar was his name. They also saw a hack mare (gerran banmaircech) with an old pack saddle upon her, carrying corn and flour from the mill.

When Mongan saw them, he said to the son of the Daim: 'I have found the shape in which we will go,and if I am destined ever to obtain my wife, I shall do so this time.'

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'That becomes you, O noble prince,' [said the son of the Daim].

'O son of the Daim, come and call Cuimne of the mill out to me to converse with me.'

'It is three score years [said Cuimne] since any man has asked me to converse with him.'

She came out, the dog following her, and when Mongan saw them, he laughed then he said to her:

'If you would take my advice, I would put you into the shape of a young girl, and you should be as a wife with me or with the King of Leinster.'

'I will do that, of course,' said Cuimne.

With the magic wand Mongan gave a stroke to the dog, which became a sleek white lapdog, the fairest that was in the world, with a silver chain around its neck and a little bell of gold on it, so small that it would have fitted into the palm of a man. And [with the magic wand he gave a stroke to the hag], who became a young girl, the fairest of the girls of the world as regards the form ,to wit, Ibhell of the Shining Cheeks,daughter of the king of Munster. He himself assumed the shape of Aedh, son of the king of Connaught, and the son of the Daim he put into the shape of his attendant. Then he made a shining-white palfrey with crimson hair, and of the pack saddle he made a gilded saddle with variegated gold and precious stones. They mounted two other mares in the shape of steeds, and in that way they reached the fortress.

The doorkeepers saw them and told the king of Leinster that it was Aed the Beautiful, son of the king of Connaught, and his servant, with his wife Ibhell of the Shining Cheek, daughter of the king of Munster, exiled and banished from Connaught, that had come under the protection of the king of Leinster, and he did not wish to come with a greater host or retinue. The doorkeeper made the announcement, and the king came to meet them, and welcomed them. The king of Leinster called the son of the king of Connaught to his shoulder. 'That is not the custom with us,' said the son of the king of Connaught, [according to the custom with us] he should sit by the side of the king who is worthiest of that in the castle, but as next to you in the house I am the best, I will sit down by the side of the king. '

The drinking hall was put in order. Mongan put a love charm (blicht serce) into the cheeks of the hag, and from the look which the king of Leinster cast on her he was filled with her love, so that there was not a bone of his of the size of an inch, but was filled with love of the girl. He called his servant to him and said to him: 'Go to where the wife of the king of Connaught's son is, and say to her the king of Leinster has bestowed great love upon you, and that a king is better than a king's heir.'

Mongan understood the whispering, and said to Cuimne: 'There is an attendant coming from the king of Leinster with a message to you, but I know the content of the secret message which he brings, and if you would take my advice, you would not be with a worse man than myself or the king of Leinster.'

' If I understand well, I have no choice of the bridegroom, whichever of you will be a husband to me.'

'If that be so,' said Mongan, 'when he comes to you, say that by his gifts and precious stones you will know him who loves you, and ask him, for the drinking horn with which he comes to pour you a drink.'

The king of Leinster’s servant came therefore to converse with the false Ibhell, and said: 'Here is a noble horn brought to you. '

' It is by his gifts and precious stones that we should know him who loves us. '

And the king of Leinster said therefore to the servant : 'Give her my horn.' But the king's household said: 'Do not give your treasures to the wife of the King of Connaught's son.'

'I shall give them,' said the king of Leinster, 'for the woman and my treasures will come to me.'

The son of the Daim takes the horn from her and whatever else she got of treasures till the morning.

Then Mongan said to Cuimne: 'Ask the king of Leinster for his girdle.' The girdle was of such a nature that neither sickness nor trouble would seize the man who wore it. And therefore she demanded the girdle, and the king of Leinster gave it her. The son of the Daim forthwith took it from her.

'And now say to the king of Leinster's servant, if the (whole) world were given you, you would not leave your own legitimate husband for him.'

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The servant told that to the king of Leinster, who said: 'Cad ara fuil bhar n-aire ? '

'Are you in the house . . .?' said they.

'You know this woman by my side, to wit Dublacba of the White Hands, daughter of Fiachna the Black one, son of Deman. I took her from him on terms of "friendship without a refusal," and if you like, I would exchange with you.'

Great anger and ferocity seemed to seize Mongan and he said: 'If I had brought steeds and studs with me, you would be right to ask them of me. However, it is not right to refuse a lord . . . ??? though I am loath it should be so, take her to you.' And as they made the exchange, Mongan gave three kisses to the girl, and said: 'Everyone would say that we did not make the exchange sincerely, if I did not give these kisses.' And they indulged themselves until they were drunk and hilarious.

Then the son of the Daim arose and said: 'It is a great shame that no one puts drink into the hand of the king of Connaught's son.' And as no one answered him, he took the two best steeds that were in the fortress, and Mongan put swiftness of wind into them. He placed Dublacha behind him, and the son of the Daim did the same with his own wife, and they set forth.

When on the morrow the household of the king of Leinster arose, they saw the cloak of the hag, and the tall gray hag on the bed of the king. They saw the dog with a chain round his neck, and they saw the hack mare and the pack saddle. . . . ??? The people laughed and awoke the king of Leinster, who saw the hag by his side and said: 'Are you the gray-backed hag of the mill?'

'I am,' said she.

'What a shame for me I should have slept thus with you, O Cuimne!'

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 33.

Mongan set out to Raith Descirt in Bregia …. This passage is not very clear. We wonder indeed how Mongan can enter so easily the very middle of the fortress of his worst enemy without being located except by Dublacha. It is as strange or obscure as certain passages (many) of the Bible or of Quran.

Magic wand. We will reconsider the magic in the religion in one of our lessons.

While specifying well that we do not call into question here in any way the professionals of the show business who work honestly by using innumerable tricks intended to mislead our brain by various illusions like Robert-Houdin and his follower Houdini.

We will see that, like in the case of the famous Egyptian magicians evoked by the biblical text written during the reign of the king of Judah Josiah in the seventh century, hypnosis explains a great part of it.

Also let us remark that the first magics in the strictest sense of the word were part and parcel of religion. The Persian magi for example were quite simply the priests of Medes.

The evolution of scientific knowledge, which give explanations to the phenomena like the lightning, the movements of planets, or the chemical reactions (Egyptian alchemy by Bolos of Mendes), gradually reduced the belief in the powers of magic.

The practice of magic is based on the belief human mind is almighty over the world which surrounds it and that a thught determined, directed well, focused well, can become a reality , influence things and beings. But how this concretization of thought would be possible? According to materialist minds and the majority of scientists, it is a phenomenon physically impossible and without scientific base. According to the magicians, a secret power or force would be used as an intermediary between the mental world and the level of physical reality. The Magic, indeed, is presented by its followers like the use of a power or of a force to influence a given target (the practitioner himself, a third party, a community, a thing). The followers of the contemporary magic define the role of the magic practices thus: to put into action this famous force or this power to influence the destiny of a target. Connection can be made easier by props or ingredients.

Jews Christian and Muslims share this anti-scientist attitude by cultivating the idea that demons and angels - the gods? - can intervene in the affairs of this world, with the quite convenient courtesy of God

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– of Fate? – who “by using the laissez-faire policy ” shows in this way his huge and very almighty power (at least in the eyes of the believers).

There exist nevertheless slight differences in this magical mentality of Jews Christians and Muslims.

Some Judeo-Islamic-Christians also promote the direct intervention of God personally (Devil being supposed to act as for him, like the simple demons, only by courtesy of God) in the ranks of these magical means. Others admit the magical effectiveness of the sacraments ex opere operato.

Christians also admit as magic means, the intercession of the saints even of the Virgin Mary.

Muslims refuse the magic powers of the saints or of the Virgin Mary but add jinns to the panoply of a magician and admit the intercession of Muhammad (for Muslims). The powers of the mind over the body are undeniable (placebo effect, hypnosis, hallucinations) but what to think of the rest? We will reconsider this subject in another lesson.

Great anger and ferocity seemed to seize Mongan. This story looks just like a satirical comedy of master-servant type. Moliere in France would have enjoyed that. Mongan therefore pretends to be very angry in order not to arouse the suspicions.

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RETURN ON THE DEEP-ROOTED ANTI-CHRISTIANITY OF THE STORY.

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 34.

There was a historical Mongan in Ireland in the 7th century. A son of the king of Dal Araide in Ulster,

having taken part in the battle of Degsastan in 603 alongside the king of Dal Riata named Aedan Mac Gabrain (Aedan Mac Gabrain was overcome there by the king of Bernicia Aethelfrith. N.B. Situation not very common, Dal Riata was a kingdom stretching both in Northern Ireland and Scotland).

You will forgive the simple amateur I am not to find much historical in all these stories and therefore we will deal with this character of legends as he was rather a demigod or a great initiate (in alchemy and hypnosis).

Mongan appears indeed in all these legends as a kind of shaman having various hypnotic powers : changes, illusions, and so on, generally ascribed to the gods or demons.

He is particularly able to appear as a spirit to hundreds kilometers of his residence. “As a spirit” being besides a way of speaking, because his double, in fact, is able to experiment most carnal physical feelings (see his visits to Dubhlacha in the castle of the king of Leinster).

The legend is dated by the event it reports or which is used as a starting point for it, i.e., around the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century. And it is there the whole paradox of the thing: worked out or formatted at the time of newest and most expansionist Irish Christianity, spiritually and intellectually strongest, the legend of Mongan is of pre-Christian substance. It stages mythological or mythical characters of whom, the least we can say is that they are not reusable by Christianity, without an obvious and hard effort sometimes, of conciliation, adaptation, syncretism. Mongan is made having talks with St Columba of Iona - Colum Cille - for example, but the success is not obvious in the field of History, which remains disguised myth.

The battle of Degsastan in 603 is not a legend placed in History, it is a historical fact incorporated into a legend. Therefore it is vain to deal with this legend as it was history and the correspondences with Irish annals, whatever they are, have only a thin value of approximation. Historical Mongan, almost unknown and Christianized with excess, is much unimportant than his Anglo-Saxon contemporaries. Let us say in short, to give a first draft of the character, that Mongan, without being a god-or-demon himself, is a son of God-or-demon. And that he has the gift of changes , what situates him outside ordinary history.We see him living some mishaps which occurred to the kings of Ireland, and from which the god-or-demons themselves were not free: he fights, loses his wife, then wins her again; he escapes by a hair's breadth the curse of a bard and ridicules his colleague of Leinster after having been fooled by him.

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Some variants of the Lebor Na hUidre as of the Yellow Book of Lecan entitled “a story of Mongan” or “the events which were reported about the telling of Mongan’s frenzy (“scél Mongàin inso” and “Tucait baile Mongain inso”); emphasize close and ongoing relationships of Mongan with the Other World. It is besides undoubtedly why Kuno Meyer published them, in an appendix, after his study on the voyage of Bran son Febal.

Indication of an extension of time is characteristic of a stay in the world of the god-or-demons. The anecdote is comparable to that of Conn received by the sovereign fairy of Ireland in the story entitled Baille in Scail (The Phantom's Frenzy ).

A fragment of the Navigation of Bran son of Febal published in the same book by Kuno Meyer (and to start besides, the legends about Mongan appearing only in an appendix) brings to us some additional details about Mongan and his power of changes (pages 24 and 26: quatrains 53 and 54).

The most enigmatic mention in the poem is that of the various animal forms likely to be taken by Mongan: a dragon, wolf (wild dog), stag, salmon, seal, swan which can support the thesis of d’Arbois de Jubainville on the parallelism of the cases of Tuan and Mongan.

He will be in the shape of every beast

Both on the azure sea and on land

He will be a dragon before hosts at the onset

He will be a wolf of every great forest.

He will be a stag with horns of silver

In the land where chariots are driven

He will be a speckled salmon in a full pool

He will be a seal, he will be a fair-white swan.

Unfortunately, nothing in the text of the Voyage of Bran published by Kuno Meyer specifies that these possibilities of changes consisted in prolonged but also successive states, in other words, in metempsychosis. And as, on the other hand, the life of Mongan is limited in time (fifty or hundred years, according to the stanza) and that no passage shows an example of animal metamorphosis; we have no choice but to conclude that the ability of Mongan to wear another appearance than his is inherited from Belinos Barinthus (Manannan). All the people of the Other World have the power to change thus.

The anti-Christian preconception is obvious in the construction of the complex plot. Admittedly, at the beginning of the seventh century, whole Ireland was already Christian - at least theoretically - including Ulster, and the provincial oppositions were not religious, supposing that they ever were so . But this anti-Christianity, with ironic or literarily satirist tendencies, is already a partial explanation of the very little romantic character Mongan,who is:

- son of the god-or-demon Belinos Barinthus (Manannan) like Cuchulainn is the son of the god-or-demon Lug;

- endowed with the power of changes like the master magician who is his divine father;

- Finn returned on earth with another name for a second existence.

The appearance of the Christian clergy, in a pre-Christian story , is not an “interpolation” due to a monastic influence or an awkwardness of the transcription. It is a part and a parcel of the argument: Mongan and his servant have the surprise to arrive in a province converted to Christianity. They use this circumstance at the expenses of the new clergy. The legend is not Christian and, where Christianity appears, very superficially, without any expression of faith or spiritual life, it is through the antagonism of two provinces.

- Ulster, faithful to the old god-or-demons.

- Leinster, converted to Christianity.

But these Christians are not better than the others in spite of their claims. See the presentation of the characters, particularly of the king of Leinster, whose rude and direct sexual advances inspire neither

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benevolence nor sympathy. And even the coachman of the Christian king is hardly worth better. Dubhlacha is exposed to advances of the coachman of the king of Leinster, whose court seems thus lacking the most elementary virtue and respect.

The Christians are not better than the others and their priests (for example the priest Tibraide ) are incorrigible gullible fools deprived of any common sense. Mongan therefore was well right to throw distantly the Four Gospels.

We should not nevertheless draw too hasty conclusions from that about Celts in Ireland.

According to the legend, King Cunocavaros/Conchobar, died of anger by learning the lawsuit then the crucifixion of Christ. It must be said that there were causes when the account the Gospel according to Saint John made of it, is heard.

“The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples, and about his teaching. Jesus answered him : "I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said."

When he had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, "Is that the way you answer the high priest?"

Jesus answered him : "If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike me?"

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Pilate said to him :"What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, "I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews?"

So they cried out again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber.

Pilate then took Jesus and scourged him.

The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, they put a purple robe on him; and they began to come up to him and say, "Hail, king of the Jews!" and to give him slaps in the face.

…………

Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews : "Behold, your king!"

So they cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!"

Pilate said to them : "Shall I crucify your king?"

The chief priests answered : "We have no king but Caesar."

……

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written : JESUS THE NAZARENE KING OF THE JEWS.

Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek.

So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate : Do not write THE KING OF THE JEWS but that he said, 'I am the king of the Jews.'"

Pilate answered : "What I have written I have written."

A true Celt as King Conchobar could only be nauseated by such an eagerness from the Jews (sic) in this time and in this place; considering the total injustice of the situation (to slap for any reason, for nothing, a prisoner who cannot defend himself…)

N.B. We will reconsider nevertheless in another lesson this passage of the four Gospels which, like many others, seems to be completely forged by the first Christians. There exists for example no trace of a man named Barabbas having really been apart from a ….Jesus Barabbas (in the Gospel according to saint Matthew chapter 27,16-17. But this first name of Barabbas is in general discreetly rubbed out or bowdlerized by Christian publications).

Our only religion to us being that of truth it is necessary that things are said.

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THE VOYAGE OF BRAN SON OF FEBAL AND HIS EXPEDITION HERE BELOW (EXTRACTS.)

Immram Brain Maic Febail ocus a echtra andso sis.

"It was fifty quatrains the woman from unknown lands sang on the floor of the house to Bran son of Febal, when the royal house was full of kings, who knew not whence the woman had come, since the ramparts were closed".

This account (around sixty stanzas) is generally regarded as pertaining to the genre Echtra though containing elements belonging to Immrama. It dates back to the eighth century. Manuscripts are scattered a little everywhere: Lebor Na hUidre (book of the dun cow) Leabhar Buidhe Lecain (Yellow Book of Lecan) Egerton collection etc…

This legend contains a long description of the other world of dead and gods worked out then put in circulation by former druids (whose veledae or file formed a branch) in order not to make room for the fear of death in the mind of their believers. We find in it descriptions usual to all high-level spirituality since directly comparable with this of the Western pure land of bliss (buddhakshetra Sukhavati in Sanskrit ) of the Buddha called Amitabha, a marvelous, pure, perfect , deprived of evil, suffering and troubles, world. But with a touch of erotism, moreover. It is perhaps the initial model of the voyage of St Brendan.

!---------------- ------------------------------ ----------------------- !

This is the beginning of the story. One day, in the neighborhood of his castle, Bran went about alone, when he heard music behind him. As often as he looked back, ’twas still behind him the music was. At last he fell asleep at the music, such was its sweetness. When he awoke from his sleep, he saw close by him a branch of silver with white blossoms, nor was it easy to distinguish its bloom from that branch. Then Bran took the branch in his hand to his royal house. When the hosts were in the royal house, they saw a woman in a strange raiment on the floor of the house. It was then she sang fifty quatrains to Bran, while the host heard her, and all beheld the woman.

Who sang this:

A branch of the apple tree from Emain

I bring, like those one knows;

Twigs of white silver are on it,

Crystal brows (abrait) with blossoms.

There is a distant isle,

Around which seahorses glisten

A fair course against the white-swelling surge,

Four feet uphold it.

A delight of the eyes, and a glorious range,

Is the plain on which the hosts hold games:

Boat contends against chariot

In southern plain of Findargat.

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Feet of white bronze under it

Glittering beautiful through ages.

Lovely land throughout the world's age,

On which the many blossoms drop.

An ancient tree there is with blossoms,

On which birds call to the hours.

’Tis in harmony it is their wont

To call together every hour.

Splendors of every color glisten

Throughout the gentle-voiced plains.

Joy is known, ranked around music,

In southern plain of Argatnél.

Unknown is wailing or treachery

In the familiar cultivated land,

There is nothing rough or harsh,

But sweet music striking on the ear.

'Wiyout grief, without sorrow, without death,

Wiyout any sickness, without debility,

That is the sign of Emain

Uncommon is an equal marvel.

A beauty of a wondrous land,

Whose all aspects are lovely,

Whose view is a fair country,

Incomparable is its haze.

10.

Then if Aircthech (Bountiful Land ?) is seen,

On which dragon stones and crystals drop

The sea washes the wave against the land,

Hair of crystal drops from its mane.

11.

Wealth, treasures of every hue,

Are in Ciuin (Gentle land ?) , a beauty of freshness,

Listening to sweet music,

Drinking the best of wine.

12.

Golden chariots in the plain of Réin,

Rising with the tide to the sun,

Chariots of silver in the plain of Mon (of sport ?),

And of bronze without blemish.

13.

Yellow-golden steeds are on the sward there,

Other steeds with a crimson hue,

Others with wool upon their backs

Of the hue of heaven all-blue.

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14.

At sunrise there will come

A fair man illumining the plain;

He rides upon the fair sea-washed plain,

He stirs the ocean till it is blood.

……….. …………………

……………………………

23.

There are thrice fifty distant isles

In the ocean to the west of us;

Larger than green Erin twice

Is each of them, or thrice.

24.

A great birth will come after ages,

That will not be in a lofty place,

The son of a woman whose mate will not be known,

He will seize the rule of the many thousands.

25.

A rule without beginning, without end,

He has created the world so that it is perfect,

Whose are earth and sea,

Woe to him that will be under his unwill!

26.

’Tis he that made the heavens,

Happy he that has a white heart,

He will purify hosts under redemptive water,

’Tis he that will heal all your sicknesses.

…………………………………

It was not long thereafter when they reached the Land of Women. They saw the princess of the women at the port. Said the chief of the women: 'Come hither on land; O Bran son of Febal! Welcome is your advent!'

But Bran did not venture to go on shore. The woman throws a ball of thread to Bran straight over his face. Bran put his hand on the ball, which cleaved to his palm. The thread of the ball was in the woman's hand, and she pulled the boat towards the port. Thereupon they went into a large house, in which was a bed for every couple, even thrice nine beds. The food that was put on every dish did not vanish from them. It seemed only a year to them that they were there,it chanced to be many years. Nístesbi nach mlass. Because no savor was wanting to them ??

Homesickness seized one of them, even Nechtan the son of Collbran. His kindred kept praying Bran that he should go to Ireland with him. The woman said to them their going would make them rue. However, they went, and the woman said that none of them should touch the land, and that they should visit and take with them the man whom they had left on the Island of Joy.

Then they went until they arrived at a gathering at Srub Brain. The men asked of them who it was come over the sea. Said them Bran: 'I am Bran the son of Febal' . But the other said: 'We do not know such a one youth the Voyage of Bran is in our ancient stories.'

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The man leaped from them out of the boat but as soon as he touched the earth of Ireland, forthwith he was a heap of ashes, as though he had been in the earth for many hundred years.Then Bran sang this quatrain:

'For Collbran's son great was the folly

To lift his hand against age,

Without anyone casting a wave of pure water

Over Nechtan, Collbran's son.'

Thereupon, to the people of the gathering Bran told all his wanderings over the sea from the beginning until that time. He wrote these quatrains in Ogamic runes, and then bade them farewell. And from that day his wanderings over the sea are not known.

FINIT. THE END

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 35.

Drinking the best of wine. Cf. Quran sura 47 verse 15 and sura 83, verse 25: “they are given to drink of pure wine,sealed, hose seal is musk… mixed with water of Tasnim.”

Plain of Mon. The Gaelic term refers especially to the physical skill.

A great birth will come after ages. Obvious Christian interpolation since it is probably an allusion to Jesus the Nazarene. But well, we are accustomed to all these forging from Christians.

Of pure water. Allusion to baptism. Still a trace of text faking worked out by Christians. But it is true that in the language of the specialists you do not say “faking” but “interpolation.”

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THE ADVENTURES OF CONNLA THE FAIR, SON OF CONN OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES.

ECTRA CONDLA CHAIM, MEIC CUIND CHETCHATHAIG INSO.

A story dating perhaps from the seventh century and appearing in the manuscripts of the Lebor na huidre or Book of the dun cow.

Why was Art the Lone One so called?

Ni handsa.

Not hard to say.

One day as Connla the red one, son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter, was with his father on the Hill of Usnech he saw a woman with an unfamiliar dress.

Said Connla : "Where do you come from like that, woman?"

The woman answered, "I come from the Lands of the Living ( tírib beó ) where there is neither death nor venial sin nor mortal sin. We keep feast without need for service. Peace reigns among us without strife. Unclouded peace (or the large sid?) in which we live, makes we are called folk of the sid (aes side)."

"Who is it you are speaking to?" Conn asked his son; for nobody could see the woman save Connla alone.

The woman answered : "He is speaking to a young and beautiful woman of noble descent, who will know neither death nor old. Long have I loved Connla, and I summon him to the plain of joy (Mag Mell), Boadach the Eternal is king, a king in whose realm there has no weeping and no sorrow since he began his rule.

"Come with me, O Connla the Red one, with rosy neck, gleaming like a candle. The fair hair crown that sits above your ruddy countenance is a token of your royalty. If you follow me, your form shall never decrease in youth or beauty, even to the Day of Judgment, which must come (brath brindach)."

Then Conn spoke to his druid (Corann was his name), for they had all heard everything the woman had said, although they did not see her:

I appeal to you, Corann,

Skilled in invocations, skilled in arts!

A power has come over me

Too great for my skill,

Too great for my power

A battle has come upon me

Such as I have not met since I took the sovereignty.

By a treacherous attack the unseen shape overpowers me,

To rob me of my fair son,

With words of woman’s magic.

He is snatched from my royal authority

By women's words of magic.

Whereupon the druid sang a magic incantation against the voice of the woman, so that no one could hear her voice, and Connla saw no more of her at that time. But as the woman departed before the potent chanting of the druid, she threw Connla an apple.

Connla remained to the end of a month without food or drink, for no nourishment seemed to him worthy to be consumed save only the apple. What he ate of the apple never diminished it, but it always remained unconsumed.

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Longing seized upon Connla for the woman he had seen. On the day when the month was completed as Connla seated with his father in the plain of Archommin, he saw the same woman coming towards him. She spoke to him thus:

A woeful seat where Connla sits!

Among short-lived mortals,

Awaiting only dreadful death.

The true living, the immortal, call to you;

They summon you to the people of Tethra

Who behold you every day

In the assemblies of your native land,

Among your beloved kinsmen.

When Conn heard the voice of the woman, he called to his attendants in order to say them : "Summon me the druid. I see that her tongue is loosed today."

Then said the woman:

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 36.

There follows a Christian interpolation referring to the arrival of St Patrick, and, of course, added afterwards, hence its intrinsic contradiction with the rest of the story, or its inconsistency if you want.

We will note by the way this incorrigible racist propensity of the religion of love and true truth of the single and unique true God, etc., perhaps culturally inherited of the Jewish hubris (consisting in thinking to be the preferred children of God) to systematically call demonic worships or spirituality other than theirs.

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O Conn the Hundred-Fighter,

You should not cling to druidry!

It will not be long before there comes

To deliver judgments on our broad strand

A righteous one, with many wonderful companies.

And soon his law will reach you.

Conscéra brichta drúad tardechta

Ar bélaib demuin duib dolbthig.

He will annihilate the tardechta powers of the druids

In the sight of the black sorcerer demon.

Then Conn wondered why Connla made no answer after the woman came again.

"Has it touched your heart, what the woman says, O Connla?" asked Conn.

Then said Connla : "It is not easy for me. Although I love my people, longing for the woman has seized me." The latter said:

Tathud airunsur álaib

Fri toind t'eólchaire ofadib.

You feel no difficulty in fulfilling the wishes ??????????????

Which make you languish to go beyond the waves ?????

That land we may reach in my crystal boat,

Is the sidh of Boadach.

There is yet another land

That is no more difficult to reach;

I see it, now the sun sinks.

Although it is far, we may reach it before night.

That is the land which rejoices

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The heart of everyone who wanders therein;

No other sex lives there

Save women and maidens.

Then he gave a leap into the woman's crystal boat. The people saw him going away. Hardly could their eyes follow Connla and the maiden as they fared forth over the sea. From that day forward, they were never seen again. And then said Conn as he gazed upon his other son Art : "Today is Art left the lone one."

Hence he came to be called "Art the Lone One.”

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 37.

Venial sin. We translate so the Gaelic word peccad.

Mortal sin. We translate so the Gaelic term imorbus.

Peace. We translate so the Gaelic word sid, old Celtic sedos.

The judgment which must come. A Christian interpolation perhaps to mean the doom day.

The Crystal boat. We cannot help thinking of the representation of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, if this word is preferred, Sequana, found in the springs of the River Seine . Her bronze boat is completely comparable with that of this mysterious fairy come from the other world. This group of bronze (today preserved at the museum of Dijon in Burgundy) would be the representation of a fairy or of a messenger of the god-or-demons, come through this door of the next world which is every spring?

The sidh of Boadach. In Far East they would say the buddhakshetra of Boadach, or the pure land of the Buddha Boadach. Explanation.

The Other World of the former Irishmen also has the names Mag Meld (Plain of Joy), Mag Mor (Great Plain), Tir Na mBeo (Land of the Living), Tir Na mBan (Land of Women), Tir Na nOg (Land of the Young ), and Tir Tairngire (Land of Promise), etc.etc . because the metaphysical problem of life after death is not a belief as simplistic as the Judeo-Islamic-Christians would like it or kind “I believe in Heaven with its houris and in Hell, as well in neutral ground or in purgatory.” It is rather a hodgepodge or a combination of several concepts.

A) is it necessary to say no (A1), perhaps or "we don’t know" (A2) or yes (A3) to the notion of “life after death?”

B) who or what survives: a single person (B1), an elite (B2), the community (B3), whole mankind (B4) or the world (B5)?

C) what survives: a soul, the mind, the Self…?

D) is this support individual, impersonal, collective or universal?

E) starting from when one survives: at the moment of death, the “end of time?” …

F) for how long: forever? …

G) according to what time: in a linear time, by cycles or in a spiral? …

H) where: under ground, in stars, in heaven or in hell…?

K) according to what law: the Judgment of God, the Fate, the karma, the weight of bran…?

L) for what type of survival in the afterlife or in the new life?

M) with which last end: extinction of the ego (nirupadhishesha-nirvana), union in God…?

N.B. Atheistic materialism stops immediately its reflection by an adjournment of the judgment: we don’t know (A2).

On the other hand, the druidic design of the life after death follows up, with its “logic” of survival (A3), on possibilities of B type.

Then emerge questions of method.

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I) is it possible to know if there is life after death, and how to speak of it?

II) Where to document oneself? Irish legends?? Texts by Plutarch. The scholiasts of Lucan???

III) What are the evidence and the counter proofs?

Some examples of types of survival of the soul after death according to the cultures.

Neutral existence, Limbo. According to Thomas Aquinas children having died without having been baptized go neither to heaven nor in hell, they do not feel pain and are not aware to miss a supernatural destiny (Quaestiones disputatae de malo, qu. 5, Article 3). According to the Quran (VII, 46), there exist a “veil between heaven and Hell,” al-Araf (rampart, walls), it seems would be an abode, and an abode reserved for those who would have done as much good than evil.

Demonization. In Rome, the “larvae” or “lemures” are souls of dead become harmful demons (Apuleius, on the god of Socrates XV).

Larval existence. Homer: “ The spirit vanished like smoke beneath the earth, gibbering faintly” (Iliad XXIII, 107). Former Jews: “The departed spirits tremble under the waters ” (Job XXVI, 5).

According to ancient philosophies.

For the former Greeks (Homer, Hesiod), the soul of deceased goes across the Styx River on the boat of Charon. It crosses then the bronze gates guarded by Cerberus, and it remains forever in Hades, the invisible world, under ground, living the existence of a spirit, deprived of strength and senses, without hope of return (Odyssey XI).

Let us note by the way that this moving evocation of the dead made by Ulysses is perhaps the ultimate but considerably distorted, echo (hope in less) of a Celtic-druidic myth on the destiny of the soul after the death of its body. At least according to the Roman poet named Claudian. In the first book of his invective against Rufinus we can indeed read this (lines of verses 129 to 134).

“There is a place where Celtica stretches her furthermost shore spread out before the waves of Ocean:

It is there that Ulysses is said to have called up the silent ghosts with a libation of blood.

There is heard the mournful weeping of the spirits of the dead as they flit by with faint sound of wings,

And the inhabitants see the pale ghosts pass

And the shades of the dead.”

“Let us also note that in this place according to the Greeks the destiny of the good persons is not better than the destiny of the bad persons. Only the great criminals (Sisyphus, Tantalus, Ixion) are punished; and only some privileged persons (Menelaus, Achilles) are transported to the islands of the blessed.

According to Indian traditions.

The religions of the Indians in North America make the kingdom of dead a true copy of the world of the living. The traditional representation of the kingdom of dead in North America is designated by these terms: “ happy hunting grounds.” Several tribes of the Plains imagine the stay of dead as a swaying meadow where they hunt the buffalo successfully, live in tepees, feast and dance. Those who sinned are excluded from the community, they are sentenced to live the wandering life of spectra, or they are sent in a country different of that which receive ordinary dead, but neither the idea of a last judgment nor that of a kind of law of retaliation in the hereafter exists among them.

In the eyes of Hindus, there exists a hierarchy of the worlds (loka).

1) Bhur-loka is the material world we know (Earth and universe surrounding it).

2) Bhuvar-loka is a “higher” world, area of residence of the spirits and genies, good or evil. Gandharvas and Apsaras live there. It is also the world of the devas.

3) The svar-loka or svarga-loka is the world of the gods, on a more upper level in the hierarchy. It is in a way the equivalent of the Christian Heaven.

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4) Brahma-loka, the world of Brahman beyond any definition, out of the time and of the space, it has no limitation. It is the “higher one” of the four.

In this design of the world, the soul of man falls within Brahma-loka and the body within Bhur-loka.

The svar-loka or svarga-loka or Indra-loka, i.e., the sky; is the first heaven of Hindus.

It is intended for the souls who are worthy to be freed of a long stay on Earth (almost everyone in druidism); it is the one which is closest to the earthly sphere. Roads which lead to it are beautiful and roomy. From everywhere are met only choruses of gandharvas, and groups of apsaras; the first one makes a delightful harmony be heard, and the others are engaged in voluptuous dances. There are in it splendid palaces where everything is served abundantly; ponds where sacred lotuses float; bulky trees providing a delicious shade. The ground is strewn with flowers which fall there perpetually in abundant rains. The gods go there on horse back or on elephant back, in rich palanquins or in superb chariots. Many servants shelter them under white sunshades, and refresh them by waving around them large fans. All that can delight senses and satisfy desires, all that most brilliant imagination can imagine as richnesses, of unalloyed pleasures , of rest without trouble and of endless happiness, is gathered in these enthralling places. We can judge by this depiction of the avenues leading to the lndraloka, what is to be this heaven itself. The most unutterable pleasures are reserved there for the blessed who live here, and, like in the heaven of Muhammad, splendid gardens cover them with their shade; flowers of an innumerable variety of forms and colors decorate them and fill them with most sweet perfumes; exquisite liquors, poured very freely in gold cups, delight their palate and provide them a sweet intoxication , which, far from reducing their feelings, develops on the contrary their whole energy. However the souls of the deceased do not remain eternally in this blessed stay; and, upon expiration of a long period of time, they return on Earth to start again on it a new life. Whereas in druidism they continue their rise towards stars.

VARIOUS ULTRA-HUMAN STATES OF BEING.

It goes without saying all these descriptions are only translation attempts in human language of a state of being in reality inexpressible, but we can compare to a beginning of bliss. No ancient druid would have bet while risking his life that it was really exactly like this, and to the last details. Descriptions of it which were kept us vary enormously according to the times besides and are strongly marked by the fact that they were especially intended for the warlike class. Few texts in connection with the way in which individuals of “druid” disposition designed heaven (books and studies in abundance, etc.) are in Plutarch (his descriptions of mysterious islands). Single common point: this state of being after the death of the body was not a state of being of lugubrious larval or demonic type as among the Greeks (see the meeting of Ulysses with the shades of the dead, book XI of the odyssey) or among the Romans.

As regards druidism it is also important to carefully distinguish the other world of the gods from the next world reserved for the souls of the deceased after the death of their body.

These two worlds or these two different states of being more exactly overlapped indeed very narrowly but could not be confused: the overlapping is indeed only partial.

The other world of the gods is so to speak a double of that of the world of men on earth since the gods can be everywhere can intervene constantly in our world (what they don’t hesitate to do besides, at least according to some people).

The next world of the deceased, on the other hand, is in a way more restricted, because the souls of the dead , even according to the staunchest spiritualist, do not intervene on earth as often gods or demons do it (to use this terminology).

Buddhism of the Pure land , which has many affinities with druidism, believes in the reincarnation of the soul/mind of the deceased in a next world of heavenly types (buddhakshetra) where this pair (soul + mind) can complete cleansing oneself while profiting from the spiritual glowing from a superhuman or supernatural personality of the type god of wisdom or of harmony, or great initiate; before a progressive disappearance or melting fusion in the Big Whole, first of the mind, then of the individual soul (individual erdathe).

The Buddha called Amitabha is regarded as the creator of the Western pure land of Bliss; the two great Bodhisattvas (great initiates or semnothei in druidic terminology) Avalokitesvara and

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Mahasthamaprapta are his two assistants: they help him to welcome those ( coming from all walks of life ) who fulfilled the conditions to reach this state of being. This is why they are called “the three Saints of the West.” In the monasteries of the pure land they are shown together, with Amitabha in the middle, Avalokitesvara on his left and Mahasthamaprapta on his right. In popular Buddhism and Chinese religion, Amitabha and Avalokitesvara often have the same function: they have both promised not to dissolve themselves in the nirvana (the cosmic Big Whole) as long as all the beings would not be there. To believe in him, to want it and to recite their names constantly, are the only requirements to enter this field of infinite happiness.

The fast decline of druidism in Ireland had as a result that the majority of druidic lessons about life after the death of the body which reached us were monopolized by the bards or storytellers of the warlike class, what involved their distortion accordingly.

To note: it seems well that the female angels of druidism had a part (of calling) much more active than the houris in Islam. Who besides perhaps are not some of them, according to the German Quran specialist Christophe Luxenberg (for him houris means white grapes in Syriac language, and it would be a symbol of the happy life in the Eastern representations of the time).

NB. Houris without specification , appear in two verses of the Quran.The “ wide-eyed houris” (the virgins in heaven?) are mentioned in four places of the Quran. The “houris of comparable age” are mentioned in two other places.

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VARIOUS STORIES CONCERNING THE POWER OF THE LITMUS TESTS , THE ADVENTURES OF CORMAC IN THE LAND OF PROMISE

AND CORMAC’S DECISION ABOUT THE SWORD.

Scél na Fír Flatha, Echtra Cormaic i Tír Tairngiri, 7 Ceart Claidib Cormaic.

In fact, they are three different texts.

Various testimonies in connection with the power of the litmus tests (paragraphs 1 to 24).

Cormac’s adventures in the Land of Promise (paragraphs 25 to 54).

And lastly the judgment of Cormac in connection with the sword of the Hesus Cuchulainn (paragraphs 59 to 80).

These manuscripts date back to the 14th century and were preserved until us in the Leabhar Bhaile an Mhóta (Book of Ballymote) and in the Leabhar Buidhe Leacáin ( Yellow Book of Lecan).

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Regarding the power of the litmus tests.

Once upon a time, a noble illustrious king assumed sovereignty [sic] and sway over Ireland: Cormac grandson of Conn was he. At the time of that king, the world was full of every good thing. There were masts and fatness and sea products. There were peace and ease and happiness. There was neither murder nor robbery at that season, but everyone [abode] in his own proper place.

........................................................................................................................................................

Moreover they resorted to the power of the twelve litmus tests. These are what they indeed had to decide truth and falsehood. Here they are

Morann’s three collars

Mochta’s adz (axe)

Sencha ‘s wooden lot casting (crannchur)

The vessel of Badurn

The three dark Stones

The cauldron of Truth

The old woods of Sen son of Aige

Luchta’s iron

Waiting at an altar

Cormac’s cup.

………………………………… …………………………………………. ……………………………………….

………………..

The collar of the son of treachery.

Morannd son of Cairpre Cat-head, of the race (cheinel) of the peasants, was he. Cairpre Cat-head assumed the kingship, and he slew all the nobles of Ireland save three boys, namely Ulom, Tibraite Tireach and Feradach Findfeachtnach, who were carried off in their mothers’ wombs, and were born in Scotland. Now Cairpre, Morand’s father, had a cat’s snout, and every son that was born to him used to have a blemish, and so then he killed them. Cairpre had a famous wife and of noble descent. She gave him this advice: to hold the Feast of Tara, and to summon to it the men of Green Erin in order that they might make prayour to their gods so that, maybe, some without blemish children might be given him ???. He held the feast, and the men of Ireland were at it till the end of three months; and in each month they all used to fast and to pray a prayer to God that vigorous offspring might be born of Cairpre and his wife. And that was done then, in spite of him, because he was a wicked man. So then the wife conceived, and bore a man-child, and it seemed as if he were born with a caul because there was only a shapeless mass from his two shoulders upwards, and no mouth was seen in him, nor any (other) apertures. Said the queen: ‘I have borne a mute. He is like your other son. This is the blessing of the men of Ireland to you their enemy!’

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‘Take him,’ says Cairpre, to his steward, ‘tomorrow to the slough and drown him.’

Now that night a man of the sidh appeared to the boy’s mother and said to her: ‘It is to the sea that the child must be taken, and let his head be placed on the surface till nine waves come over it. The boy will be noble: he will be a great king. “Morand” this shall be his name’ (because he was ‘great’ – Mor in Gaelic language- and ‘fair’ - Find in Gaelic language-).

The steward is summoned to her and she told him this. Then the boy was taken to the sea and is held against the surface. When the ninth wave came to him, the membrane that surrounded his head withdrew and formed a collar on his two shoulders. There he sang a lay and said:

Adhraid a dhaine

Dia os domun dind !

Nisnich ruith riadadar

For fuil gidh faebra fortabith

In aile i fil lith la subha

Lam dia ndilgodach

Rodealb im niullu nemtheach.

Worship, you mortals,

God over the beautiful world!

?????

? ?? wherein is a festival with joyance

With my ??? God,

Who formed about clouds a heavenly house.

Therefore the steward did not kill the boy, and he dared not take him with him for fear of the king. So he delivered him to the king’s cowherd. He went home and declared that to the king and the queen. The king adjudged that the boy should be killed. The king said of him that treachery would come of him, even of that boy. Wherefore he, the son of Cairpre Cat-head is called ‘Morand son of the treachery.’ A covering of gold and silver was made round that membrane, and thus it became the ‘Collar of the son of treachery.’ If he, round whose neck it was put , were guilty, it would choke him. If, however, he were innocent, it would expand round him to fall to the ground.

Second Collar of Morand son of the treachery.

Morand had another collar, namely, a circlet like a wooden hoop. That circlet he got from Ochamon the Fool in the Sid of Femin. For he sent him into that and thereout Ochamon brought that ring. He saw in the sid that it was the thing used there in distinguishing between truth and falsehood. Now that circlet used to be put round the foot or the wrist of the person [whose guilt was in question], and if he were false it would close itself round him till it cut off his foot or his hand. But if he were innocent, it would not close itself round him.

Third collar of Morand son of treachery.

Then there was another ‘Collar of Morann.’ Morand of the Great Judgments went to Paul the Apostle, and brought from him an epistle and wore it round his neck. So when Morand returned from Paul and went to his castle he chanced to meet one of his maidservants at the fortress gate. When she saw the epistle round his neck, she asked him: ‘What collar is that, O Morann?’

‘Truly,’ says Caimin the Fool, ‘from today till doom it shall be called Morand’s collar.’ Now when Morand used to deliver judgment he would put the epistle round his neck, and then he would never utter falsehood.

Mochta’s adz (axe).

Namely, an adz of bronze which Mochta the Carpenter possessed. It used to be put into a fire of blackthorn [until it was red-hot], and the tongue [of the accused] was passed over it. He who had falsehood was burnt. He who was innocent was not burnt at all.

Sencha's wooden lot casting (crannchur).

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That is, a casting of wooden lots (crannchur) which Sencha son of Ailill practiced. He used to cast two lots out of fire, one lot for the king and one for the accused. If the accused were guilty, the lot would stick to his palm. If, however, he were innocent, his lot would come out at once. Thus it was that done: a velede’s incantation was recited over them.

The vessel of Badurn

That is, Badurn the name of a king. Now his wife went to the well, and at the well she saw two women out of the sidh, between them was a chain of bronze. When they beheld the woman coming towards them, they went under the well. So she went after them under the well, and in the sidh she saw a marvelous means of knowing the truth, even a vessel of crystal. If a man should utter three false words under it, it would separate into three [parts] on his hand. If a man should utter three true words under it, it would unite again. Then Badurn’s wife begged that vessel from the folk of the sidh. It was given to her. So that was the vessel which Badurn had for distinguishing between falsehood and truth.

The three dark stones.

That is, a bucket was filled with bog stuff and coal and every other kind of black thing, and three stones were put into it, even a white stone and a black stone and a speckled stone. Then the accused would put his hand therein, and if the truth were with him, he would bring out the white stone. If he were false, he would bring out the black stone. If he were half-guilty, he would bring out the speckled.

The cauldron of truth.

That is, a vessel of silver and gold which they had to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Water was heated therein until it was boiling, and then [the accused person’s] hand was dipped into it. If he were guilty, the hand was scalded. But if he had no guilt, no harm was done to him. For these are the three things most used by the Gentile [the heathen], to wit, the cauldron of truth, and cutruma ? lot-casting, and waiting at an altar. Hence has the practice still grown with the Gael of casting wooden lots out of reliquaries.

The old wood of Sen.

The lot-casting of Sen son of Aige, that is, to cast into water three lots, to wit, the lord’s lot and the ollam’s lot and the lot of the accused. If he, the accused, had guilt his lot would sink to the bottom. If, however, he were innocent it would come to the top.

Luchta’s iron.

Luchta the druid went to study in the land of Letha, and there he saw a strange thing [used] for discerning truth and falsehood, namely, an iron was hallowed by the druids, and then cast into a fire until it became red, then it was put on the palm of the accused. Now if guilt were with him, the iron used to burn him. But it did him no harm unless he were guilty. Thereafter Luchta told them that it would be needed ‘for us, Irishmen ,to distinguish between truth and falsehood.’ Luchta afterwards brought his hallowed iron, and it was [used] in distinguishing between truth and falsehood. Hence then the litmus test of the hallowed iron is still continually practiced by the Gael.

Waiting at an altar.

That is, a proof which they used at that time to distinguish between truth and falsehood, namely, waiting at an altar, that is, to go nine times round the altars, and afterwards to drink water over which a druid’s incantation had been uttered. Now if the accused were guilty, the token of his sin was manifest upon him. But if he were innocent, the water would do him no harm.

Now Cai Cainbrethach, the pupil of Fenius Farsaid, the twelfth, or the seachtmogad ? disciple of the school which Fenius collected from the Greeks in order to learn the many languages throughout the countries of the world, it was that Cai who brought this litmus test from the land of Israel when he came to the people of the Goddess. He had learned the law of Moses, and it was he that delivered judgments in the school after it had been gathered together from every side. It is he that instituted the ‘Judgment of Cai.’ It was that same Cai, moreover, who first instituted in Ireland ordaig dliged ceithri slechta the rule of the four means, for only two of the school came to Ireland, namely, Amirgin White-knee the velede and Cai the judge. Cai remained in Erin until he had outlived nine generations, in consequence of the righteousness of his judgments, for the judgments which he used to deliver were judgments of the Law of Moses. The judgments of the Law are very abundant in the Fenians. They were judgments of the Law [of Moses], then, that served for Cormac. ------------------- -------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------------------ ------------------ --------

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 38.

There were peace and ease and happiness. There was neither murder nor robbery. It sounds like eight-year-old children or French journalists painting a picture of Islamist rebels in Libya and Syria (in 2011-2012). It goes without saying such a description has nothing historical and comes rather under the myth, at the very least the nostalgia of a completed time.

Born with a caul. A child who is “born with a caul ” is a child who is born surrounded totally or partially by the sac of amniotic fluid - the chorion -, this membrane not being broken naturally or artificially before the delivery… When the sac of waters did not break during the labor or the pushing , the newborn can be born with unbroken membranes. People call that to be born with a caul . The caul is without danger and easily removed by the doctor or the person who helps the childbirth. During the Middle Ages, the caul was regarded as a sign of good luck for the baby. In certain cultures they saw in it a protection against the drowning, and the caul is often tight in paper and preserved as heritage for the child. To associate good luck and the fact “of being born with a caul ” has a share of logic since the skull of the child, and therefore his brain, undergoes less the pressure due to the contractions: it is the sac which absorbs the shock. The idea that to be born with a caul brings luck remained in spite of the ages, even if no study came to support the thesis.

Worship, you mortals…. It is probably a Christian interpolation (a forging) having nothing to do with the original text.

The third collar. All this paragraph is obviously influenced by the Christian under-culture if it is not a mere interpolation. Triad being very known in the Celtic world it was to be undoubtedly a third object, replaced by the on-duty Christian by an epistle of the “bad Jew” St Paul (it is not said indeed that first Christians were bad pagan converted by a bad Jew?) We will reconsider in another lesson the question of the letters by St Paul of which some are obvious fakes.

The letters by St Paul are a series of documents supposed to have been written by a person by the name Paul, a personality discovered extremely opportunely by the Heretic Marcion who was the first to associate them with the Gospel (but for him nevertheless there were only 10 of them).

Which of these letters was worn by Morand?

Let us say more seriously than to take a letter by St Paul as truth guarantee is not a very judicious choice.

The epistles known as “deutero-pauline” i.e., the epistle to the Colossians , the epistle to the Ephesians and probably the second epistle to the Thessalonians, are not by St Paul indeed but by companions of Paul.

The “trito-pauline” epistles or “pastoral epistles” which would due to “successors” of St Paul. They are the first epistle to Timothy, the second epistle to Timothy, as well as the epistle to Titus.

Lastly, since 1976 and the work of Albert Vanhoyou, it is admitted that the epistle to the Hebrews is not an epistle, but a treaty, that it is not sent to the Hebrews and is not by Paul.

What makes to us therefore 6 or 7 documents out of 13, that is to say about half, which are not by St Paul.

N.B. Letters really by Saint Paul according to his discoverer the heretic Marcion : Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians (that Marcion calls “Laodiceans”) Colossians, Philippians, Philemon.

We will reconsider in another lesson the question of this first Christianity that was that of the heretic (in every case non-Catholic non-Reformist non-Orthodox non-Coptic) who was that of the heretic Marcion.

Crannchur. Probably matches the prenni loudin or prinni lag… in the calendar of Coligny. What seems to indicate that this casting off of the “two runes” was to be done only on certain days and not at any time.

They went under the well : you might as well say that they are water goddesses or demonesses, some Celtic nymphs.

Ollam. Old Celtic ollamos. One of the highest ranks of druidic Ollotouta.

Letha. According to the electronic dictionary of the Irish language, it is the Continental Armorica or Brittany.

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Fenius Farsaid is a cock-and-bull invention of the medieval Irish bards. Incredible because it has no ancient mythological base and is on the contrary of the same kind as the non-less bewildering forgery , that is the alleged Milesian (or Gaelic) invasion of Ireland. It is an invention due to the Christian underculture of the Middle Ages which mix without a second thought ancient Egypt Scythians and Greeks as well as the not less ancient, Hebrews. This appalling hodgepodge has one essential purpose: to resume the druidic topic of the Celtic tongue, chosen language. We say well “Celtic tongue, language chosen by the gods” and not “Celts, people chosen by the gods.” True spiritually Celts indeed were never racist to such an extent to claim to be the only people chosen by God with “G” in capital letter, the single people selected and preferred by the one and single true God, father of all the men. Such racism was alien to ancient druids. The only thing they affirmed was “to speak the same language as the gods.” Greek text specifies that they were regarding, the gods, “homophonon.”

“Thank offerings should be rendered to the gods, they say, by the hands of men who are experienced in the nature of the divine, and who speak, as it were, the language of the gods (Diodorus of Sicily. Book V, chapter XXXI).

N.B. The high knowers of today point out well that they were then very obviously the Celtic gods….and not the gods of other people. The principle they draw from that therefore is this: EACH PEOPLE IS A CHOSEN PEOPLE: THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF ITS OWN GODS. AND RECIPROCALLY, EVERY PEOPLE VIEWS GODS IN ITS IMAGE (it was besides the great idea of my old master P. Lance). IT IS THEREFORE PERFECTLY CORRECT TO SAY THAT “THE CELTS ARE A CHOSEN PEOPLE.” But only in this meaning !

In what concerns us and to limit our matter to Antiquity, every people speaking a Celtic language (like Ambrones Cimbrians or Teutones) is Celtic, independently of any racial criterion (fair, dark, brown or blue eyes?) But as regards the modern world, we leave it to our readers care to decide, if it is enough to speak English, like our modern compatriots, to be English or British. Are the Americans the Irishmen or the Australians… Anglo-Saxons because they speak English (like French intellectuals think) ????. It is up to each one to see. French intellectuals in any case as for them answered this question since a few decades: for these intellectuals, who are most intelligent in the world as each one knows, it is enough to speak English to be British and therefore an Irishman who does not speak Gaelic is no longer Irish. To speak English is to be Anglo-Saxon i.e., to be British.

An American is therefore a British. Especially if his ancestors formerly fought for England (for example in order to defend the Great Britain against the Germans Nazis in 1940).

NB. As English language it is besides generally now an impoverished tongue (Globish) having lost all its charm, all its soul, all its personality. Beautiful result of globalization. In that case Esperanto, it was better. It had at least the advantage of being a neutral language.

Moses is a character as invented as Fenius Farsaid. No sure historical document speaks about him. And as the Egyptian episode of the Bible is only a forgery, the chances are high this character is only an invention of the reign of King Josiah during the seventh century before our era (2 chronicles 34,14; 2 kings 22,8).

The ten commands are besides another of the great deceptions of Judeo-Christianity. Their number varied according to the theories, some cannot date back to the time of Exodus, and finally many did not have the significance that faithful of Judaism or Christianity ascribed to them today.

THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE TEN COMMANDS.

You surely saw that in the Hollywood movies, but a small reminder of their usual storyline will be useful nevertheless! After the exit from Egypt, Moses and the Hebrews reach the desert. Arrived in front of the Sinai Mountain, Moses climbs there, alone, and here, in a tempest of fire, he receives from God ten commandments engraved on the stone that Hebrews must respect (if they do not want troubles to happen to them). These ten commandments are a summary intended to make the memorizing of the most important laws of the community easier, these which include capital punishment for a member of the clan, whoever he is. All in all, there would be here a kind of first list of “mortal sins.”

Torah reports to us that Moses received it in the Sinai and presented it to the people, during a solemn ceremony, at the foot of the mountain.

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But the account of the Exodus reporting this episode (19, 25) comprises a singularity which can only intrigue any person endowed with a certain amount of reflection. It is written there indeed that Moses went down from the mountain and spoke to say… to say… but we do not know what, because the account precisely stops here. And at once after it is no longer Moses who is supposed to speak, but God himself, who promulgates thus personally ten commands (20, 1). As if a comment ascribed to Moses had been replaced here by another later, but ascribed to God this time.

We cannot but notice these commandments really do not seem to correspond to the time of Moses, which was a time of peregrinations through the desert and of wandering life. We can consequently suppose that they were rather established at the time of Judges, about the year 1100 before our era, that is to say some 150 years after his supposed death.

Moreover, the Bible repeats these commandments (these “words”) are 10 (Deuteronomy 4,13; 10,4), but when they are counted, we find not 10 of them but… 12.

Here they are (Exodus 20, 3-17):

1. You shall have no other gods before me (verse 3).

2. You shall not make an image, etc., etc. (verse 4).

3. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, etc., etc. (verse 5).

4. You shall not misuse the name of Yaweh your god (verse 7).

5. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy (verse 8).

6. Honor your father and your mother (verse 12).

7. You shall not murder (verse 13).

8. You shall not commit adultery (verse 14).

9. You shall not steal (verse 15).

10. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (verse 16).

11. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house (verse 17, a).

12. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, etc.,etc. (Verse 17, b.)

There is therefore here something which can intrigue.

What meaning the banning to covet the “house” of his neighbor can well have indeed, for men or women who do not dwell yet in houses, but under tents? It is only after their settlement in the Promised land that Hebrews will build houses with non-temporary materials. The commandment prohibiting false testimony supposes, as for it, the existence of courts, judges and lawsuits. Impossible thing during the crossing of desert. And when the Sabbath rest is imposed, it is specified: “ On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female slave.” But how these people could have slaves, whereas themselves were all fugitives, recently left of Egypt?

All that therefore, led historians to think that the ten commandments belong in fact to a later time; that when the people is already settled in the land of Chanaan, and has an organization including moral or legal standards , adapted to another time.

Assumptions about the process having led to this result.

At a given moment, in view the abundance of laws and the need for having a summary in which most serious crimes, likely to endanger the life of the community, would appear;it was decided to draw up a short list of the latter. And to this end they sought among laws all those which included capital punishment, i.e., all those which were ended by the expression: “ You must purge the evil from among you.” The majority of these regulations were besides obviously in Deuteronomy, since this book, by definition (Deuteronomy means second law in Greek) language was a collection of them.

Hereafter the legal regulations appearing here and there, separately, in Deuteronomy.

13,2-6. If somebody appears among you and says, “Let us follow other gods” (different of Yaweh)…. You must purge the evil from among you.”

17, 2-7. If a man or woman has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky,take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death. You must purge the evil from among you.

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17, 8-13. If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge… go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time. …Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the Lord your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

21,18-21. If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother…then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you.

19,11-13. If someone …kills a neighbor…the killer shall be handed over to the avenger of blood to die….You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood.

22,13-21. If a man takes a wife and…if no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found…the men of her town shall stone her to death… You must purge the evil from among you.

24,7. If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you .

19,16-19. If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime…then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you.

22,22. If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

Editor’s Note. The only one of the commands which did not appear already in Deuteronomy is that which deals with Sabbath’s rest. Perhaps because in the past, not being regarded as a sufficiently serious matter to constitute a “mortal sin,” it did not appear in the series of laws sanctioned by capital punishment in case of violation . But later, after the return of the exile in Babylon, when the Sabbath’s observance became a decisive criterion, it was therefore added to the list.

Over time, this list took such importance among the Hebrews, that they came to ascribe it to Moses himself. It was then admitted as certain indeed that Moses had been the law giver and the organizer of the legal life of the people. To say that Moses had given these laws in the Sinai, it was therefore, in a way, not to lie, in any case to remain in the field of possibilities, even of the probabilities.

Let us remark finally that the various religions of the Book don’t agree completely on this Decalog; and that Catholicism spreads in its teaching a text which is not admitted, for example, by the exaggerated biblists that are Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Moreover, if there are well, ten commands, how to count them to find this number? For a long time, Jews and Christians discussed this problem and proposed various manners of solving it.

First attempts were these of the Jew Philo of Alexandria and of the historian Flavius Josephus. This classification distinguishes four commandments relating to God and six relating to the neighbor. It was accepted by several ancient writers, such Origen, Tertullian and the Christian Taliban or Parabolanus Gregory of Nazianza. It is also that currently Lutheran, Calvinist, Reformists, or the Anglicans, adopt.

But official Judaism as for it rejected the classification by Philo and Flavius Josephus. When the rabbis wrote Talmud, their sacred book, they proposed another way of distributing the commands.

Starting from the 16th century, when catechisms started to be spread, people foresaw the need for fixing the ten commandments in the memory of the populations; in order to make the examination of conscience, preparatory to confession, easier, and to give a stimulus to the spiritual life. However, such as they were written, these commandments appeared somewhat out of date, considering they referred at a time when the Hebrews still observed a primitive morality.

The Decalog mentioned for example other gods, since at this time, Israelites believed that there were other deities for other peoples; it prohibited images, whereas, in the New Testament (Colossians 1,14), Christ is shown as the image of the invisible God, and that it is therefore allowed to use images to express one's faith. It ordered sanctifying the Sabbath, whereas Christians celebrated Sunday, considered by them as the Lord’s day.

The Church decided therefore to work out a new Decalog for its catechism. It had already acted besides in harmony with that, by excluding the animal sacrifices, prescribed by the Former Law, the

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throat cutting of ewes, the cremation of bull calves, and the bloody immolation of lambs, which were to take place each day in the Temple.

N.B. As for the famous retaliation law , if it is unquestionably progress compared to revenge leading to an escalation of violence, it is nevertheless morally lower than the Celtic-Druidic principle of the simple repair or compensation of done wrongs or of inflicted wounds (eric, wergild etc…)

The rule of the four means.

Perhaps a legal theory or a legal code of procedure.

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Cormac’s Cup

Cormac’s own Cup, then, was a cup of gold which he had. The way in which it was found was thus:

One day, Cormac, grandson of Conn, was alone on the rampart of Téa located in Tara (mur Tea hiTemraig) he saw coming towards him an old warrior, gray-haired. A purple fringed mantle around him. A shirt embroidered with gold-threaded next his skin. Two mael ? shoes of white bronze between his feet and the earth. A branch (craeb) of silver with three golden apples on his shoulder. Delight and amusement enough it was to listen to the music made by the branch, for men sore-wounded, or women in childbed, or folk in sickness would fall asleep at the melody which was made when that branch was shaken.

The warrior saluted Cormac. Cormac saluted him.

‘Whence hast you come, O warrior?’ said Cormac.

‘From a land,’ he replied, ‘wherein there is nothing save truth, and there is neither age nor decay nor gloom nor sadness nor envy nor jealousy nor hatred nor hubris.’

‘It is not so with us,’ said Cormac. ‘A question, O warrior: shall we make an alliance?’

‘I am well pleased to make it,’ said the warrior.

Then [their] alliance was made.

‘The branch to me!’ said Cormac.

‘I will give it,’ says the warrior, ‘provided the three boons which I shall ask in Tara be granted to me in return.’

‘They shall be granted,’ said Cormac.

Then the warrior took all the necessary guarantees , and left the branch, then goes away and Cormac knew not whither he had gone.

Cormac turned into the palace. The household marveled at the branch. Cormac shook it at them, and cast them into slumber for 24 hours.

At the end of a year, the warrior comes into his meeting and asked of Cormac what he has promised for his branch. ‘It shall be given,’ said Cormac.

‘I will take [your daughter] Ailbe today,’ said the warrior.

So he took the girl with him. The women of Tara utter three loud cries after the daughter of the king of Ireland. But Cormac shook the branch at them, so that he banished grief from them all and cast them into sleep.

That day month comes the warrior and takes with him Carpre Lifechar [the son of Cormac]. Weeping and sorrow did not cease in Tara to deplore the sad fate of the boy, and on that night no one therein the castle ate or slept, they were in grief and in exceeding gloom. But Cormac shook the branch at them, and they parted from [their] sorrow.

The same warrior comes again.

‘What ask you today?’ said Cormac.

‘Your wife,’ said he, ‘even Ethne the Long sided, daughter of Dunlang king of Leinster.’

Then he takes away the woman with him.

That thing Cormac did not endure. He went after them, and everyone then followed Cormac. A great mist was brought upon them and upon the lawn round the castle. Cormac found himself on a great plain alone. There was a large fortress in the midst with a wall of bronze around it. In the fortress was a house of white silver, and it was half-thatched with the wings [feathers ?] of white birds. A fairy host

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of people [was] haunting the house, with lapfuls of the wings of white birds in their bosoms (utlaigi) to thatch the house. A gust of wind would still come to it, and still the wind would carry away all of it that had been thatched.

Then he saw a man therein kindling a fire, and the thick bole of oak was cast upon it, top and butt. When the man would come again with another oak the burning of the first oak had ended.

Then he saw another castle, vast and royal, and another wall of bronze around it. There were four houses therein. He entered the fortress and he saw the vast palace, with its beams of bronze, its wattling of silver, and its thatch of the wings of white birds.

Then he saw in the yard a shining fountain, with five streams flowing out of it, and the hosts in turn a drinking its water. Nine hazels of Buan grow over the well. The purple hazels drop their nuts into the fountain, and the five salmon which were in the streams sever and send their husks floating down the streams. Now the sound of the falling of those streams is more melodious than any music that men sing.

He entered the castle. There was one couple inside awaiting him. The man’s figure was distinguished owing to the beauty of his shape and the comeliness of his form and the wondrousness of his countenance. The girl along with him, grown-up, yellow-haired, with a golden helmet, was the loveliest of the world’s women. Dogniter a fosaic can rathugud.

Fotracud forsin clarudh cen tincur o dhune acht na clocha in 7 ass ??? His feet were washed apart ??? It was possible to bathe oneself without the assistance of whoever in a wooden cabin (clarudh ?) , because the heated stones [intended to heat water] of themselves went into and came out of the water ??? Cormac bathed himself thereafter.

As they were there after the hour of none, they saw a man coming to them into the house. A wood axe in his right hand, and a log in his left hand, and a pig behind him.

“Tis time to make ready within,’ says the warrior; ‘because a noble guest is here.’

The man struck the pig and killed it. And he cleft his log so that he had three sets of kindling . Then the pig was cast into the cauldron.

‘It is time for you to turn it,’ said the warrior.

‘That would be useless,’ said the kitchener; ‘for never and never will the pig be boiled until a truth is told for each quarter of it.’

‘Then,’ said the warrior, ‘do you begin first.’

‘One day,’ he says, ‘when I was going round the land, I found another man’s cows on my land, and I brought them with me into my cattle pound. The owner of the cows followed me and said that he would give me a reward for letting his cows go free. I gave him his cows. He gave me a pig an axe and a log, the pig to be killed with the axe every night, and the log to be cleft by it also, and there will [then] be enough firewood to boil the pig, and even enough for the palace besides. And, moreover, the pig would be alive on the morning after, and the log whole. From thence till today, they are in that wise.

‘True, indeed, is that tale,’ said the warrior.

The pig was turned [in the cauldron] : only one quarter of it having been found boiled.

‘Let us tell another tale of truth,’ said they.

‘I will tell one,’ said the warrior. ‘Plowing-time had come. When we desired to plow that field outside, then it was found plowed, harrowed and sown with wheat. When we desired to reap it, then the crop was found stacked in the field. When we desired to draw it into that side out there, it was found in the yard all in one thatched rick. We have been eating it from then till today but it is no whit greater nor less.’

Then the pig was turned [in the cauldron], and another quarter was found to be cooked.

‘It is now my turn,’ said the woman. ‘I have seven cows,’ says she, ‘and seven sheep. The milk of the seven cows is enough for the people of the Land of Promise. From the wool of the seven sheep comes all the clothing they require.’

At this story the third quarter [of the pig] was boiled.

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‘It is now your turn,’ they say to Cormac.

So Cormac related how his wife his son and his daughter had been taken from him, and how he himself had pursued them until he arrived at yonder house.

So with that the whole pig was boiled.

Then they carve the pig, and his portion is placed before Cormac.

‘I never eat a meal,’ said Cormac, ‘without fifty in my company.’

The warrior sang a burden to him and put him asleep. After this he awoke and saw the fifty warriors, and his son and his wife and his daughter, along with him. Thereupon his spirit was strengthened. Then ale and food were dealt out to them, and they became happy and joyous. A cup of gold was placed in the warrior’s hand. Cormac was marveling at the cup, for the number of forms upon it and the strangeness of its workmanship.

‘There is somewhat in it still more strange,’ said the warrior. ‘Let three words of falsehood be spoken under it, and it will break into three, then let three true declarations be under it, and it unites again as it was before.’

The warrior says under it three words of falsehood, and it breaks into three.

‘It is better to utter truth there,’ said the warrior, ‘for the sake of restoring the cup. I make therefore my declaration, O Cormac,’ says he, ‘that until today neither your wife nor your daughter has seen the face of a man since they were taken from you out of Tara, and that your son has not seen a woman’s face.’ And the cup thereby became whole.

‘Take your family then,’ says the warrior, ‘and take the cup that you may have it for discerning between truth and falsehood. And you will have the branch for music and delight. But on the day that you will die they all will be taken from you. I am Belin/Belen/Barinthus son of Lero (Manannan),’ said he, ‘king of the Land of Promise; and to see the Land of Promise was the single reason I brought you hither. The host of horsemen which you beheld thatching the house are the men of art in Ireland, collecting cattle and wealth which passes away into nothing. The man whom you saw kindling the fire is a young lord, 7 icais asa treabadh cach ni chaitheas ??? and out of his housekeeping he pays for everything he consumes ??? The fountain which you saw, with the five streams out of it, is the Fountain of Knowledge, and the streams are the five senses through the which knowledge is obtained. And no one will have knowledge who does not drink a draft out of the fountain itself and out of the streams. The folk of many arts (lucht na-illdan) are those who drank of them both.’

Now on the morrow morning, when Cormac arose, he found himself on the green of Tara, with his wife his son and daughter, and having his branch and the cup. Now that was afterwards called ‘Cormac’s cup,’ and it used to distinguish between truth and falsehood with the Gael. Howbeit, as had been told him they did not remain after Cormac’s death.

…………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………..

Great, then, and not to be told, was Cormac’s control over Ireland at that time. All the hostages of Erin were in his hand. One of them was Socht son of Fithel, son of Oengus, son of Glangen, son of Sech, son of Socht, son of Fachtna, son of Senchaid, son of Ailill Cestach, son of Rudraige.

A leabur Nahuacongbala cecinit.

Extract from the book of Nahuacongbala.

Socht had a wonderful sword, with a hilt of gold and a belt of silver: gilded was its guard, diverse-edged its point. It shone at night like a candle. If the end of its blade (rind) were bent back to its hilt, it would stretch back again like a rapier (cholg). It would sever a hair [floating] on water. It would cut off a hair on the head, and without touching the skin. It would make two halves of a man, so finely that for a long time one half would not hear or perceive what had befallen the other. Socht said that it was the Hard-headed Steeling, Hesus Cuchulainn’s sword. They held this sword through the will of their father and of their grandfather.

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At that time there was a famous steward in Tara, even Dubdrenn son of Urgriu. The steward asked Socht to sell him the sword, and told him that ….etc.,etc.

……………………..

Cormac obtains by his decision the sword as a wergild (compensation) for [the death of] Conn. Now neither battle nor combat was ever gained against that sword and against him who held it in his hand. And it is the third-best treasure that was in Green Erin, namely , Cormac’s Cup, his branch, and the sword.

So that tale is therefore the tale of the litmus tests , that of Cormac’s Adventures in the Land of Promise, and that of Cormac’s sword.

Act adberaid Na hecnaidi cach uair notaisbenta taibsi ingnad dona righflathaib anall, amal adfaid in Scel do Chund, 7 amal tarfas Tir Thairngiri do Cormac, conidh timtirecht diada ticedh fan samla sin, 7 conach timthirecht deamnach. Aingil immorro dos-ficed da chobair, ar is firindi aignidh dia lentais, air is timna Rechta rofoghnamh doibh. Timthirecht diada immorro rosaer fir Erenn a n-Uisneach ar in Tromdhaim cena lecon doibh. Finit. Amen.

The wise declare that whenever any strange apparition was revealed of old to the royal lords, as the ghost appeared to Conn, and as the Land of Promise was shown to Cormac, it was a divine ministration that used to come in that wise, and not a demoniacal ministration. Angels would come and help them, for they followed Natural Law ( firindi aignidh) , and they followed the commandment of their Law. It was a divine ministration, moreover, that freed the men of Ireland at Uisnech from the Great Bardic Company, without leaving it to them.

End. Amen.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 39.

A branch (craeb) of silver with three golden apples. A kind of super olive branch in a way. From where the fact that in certain druidic groups there exist such badge bar or palm type to mark the grades in the druidic Ollotouta: a small branch (craeb) of silver encrusted with three small golden apples.

‘What ask you today?’ said Cormac. ‘Your wife,’ said he, ‘ The great lesson to be learned from all these stories like that of Mongan, etc. IT IS THAT IT IS ALWAYS NECESSARY TO PAY GREAT ATTENTION TO HIS ACTS AND THAT IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO THINK TWICE BEFORE SPEAKING. It applies in all fields including political fields. Was it well really intelligent for Western liberal democracies to support IN THE FACTS (articles reflecting always one point of view, that of Islamists, delivery of equipment to their side, embargo on the other side, etc.) the increase of Islamism in the Arab countries in the years 2010.

When the wise man points at the moon with his finger, the French intellectual looks at the finger. i.e. sticks to appearances like an eight-year-old child instrumentalized without knowing it and unable of a thorough objective analysis, not naive, not Manichean but taking into account all the factors concerned (fear, silent majorities or minorities, strategic considerations, possibilities of staging, etc.).

The height of ridicule being reached by the Parisian edition of Match which, the very same day when the Syrian army began the reconquest of Aleppo the second city of the country after having taken again its capital (Saturday, July 28, 2012) published an issue headlined “Bashar and Asma Al-Assad. Syria escapes to them!”

When for example the Sunni Syrian Prime Minister probably bought by Qatar, defected , how many journalists have moderated the thing by pointing out that a Prime Minister in a dictatorship is always only a puppet?

The same thing a few weeks later when the French minister of foreign affairs spectacularly announced the defection which did not take place, at least in the immediate future) of the Syrian vice-president. To count one’s chickens before they’re hatched seems to be become apparently a speciality of the media. But the media over-reaction is by no means synonymous with intelligence neither with reflection nor even with information. In my dictionary in any case.

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Journalism that should not be a gregarious behavior only worthy of the blind conformity without a brain or intelligence, and even let us not speak about intellectual honesty, of the famous sheep of Panurge, nor the psittacism nor a race for the pathos and the spectacle, but a critical reflection, or analysis, so that the citizens we are can have their own value judgment instead of having at disposal only that, personal, by on-duty journalists. Press and television definitely are always an irreplaceable instrument of propaganda and of manipulation of minds, of indoctrination, of brainwashing, either it is in a hardcore dictatorship or in a soft dictatorship like that in which journalists instead of informing us dictate us what it is necessary to think while following the Lebonian crowd.

N.B. Western journalists have really dishonored themselves for a few years in each coverage of the long conflicts having torn our planet, from the war in Iraq with its weapons of mass destruction to the civil war in Syria including Libya. In Libya and Syria particularly there were in a way two wars; the true one, the civil war with its share of horrors from both sides, and the war viewed by the journalists: expectant mothers and old men repelling with blows of canes or stones the tanks of few tens of mercenary combatants supporting the dictator in power. Up to what point, such a non-information, could contribute to bring back peace, we can wonder. How many dead more such a support to Muslim crusaders or moonaders, we can wonder.

Such a black-and-white propaganda from the journalists in any case hardly helped to understand the complexity of reality and who took assiduously such “information ” literally did not understand how these civil war could finish thus : the re-establishment of the sharia and/or the exodus of Christians. Then I want well to say: “ladies and gentlemen journalists, please, keep your personal value judgments for you and transmit only facts to me, only facts, in order I can in turn make my own opinion. As Vauvenargues could have said it, the road to hell is always paved with good intentions.

With regard to the Celts here what Caesar remarked: “ Those tribes states which are considered to conduct their commonwealth more judiciously, have it ordained by their laws, that, if any person has heard by rumor and report from his neighbors anything concerning the commonwealth, he will convey it to the magistrate, and not impart it to any other; because it has been discovered that inconsiderate and inexperienced men were often alarmed by false reports, and driven to some rash act, or else took hasty measures in affairs of the highest importance.” (B.G. Book VI chapter XX).

Without going as far as that it would be perhaps good to decree that media say clearly if they make information journalism or opinion journalism. The clear distinction between opinion journalism and information journalism is indeed absolutely necessary. Or then a kind of writing license with points for journalists. An odiously partial article instead of an objective article = a point less on t he writing articles license.

House half-thatched with the wings of white birds, etc. What does mean this description? They are perhaps details isolated or taken out of their context from a more important legendary storytelling. The Christian bowdlerization made all initial coherence disappear from these accounts. On the other hand, Christianity used, of course, such accounts distorted and taken out of their context for its visions of heaven or hell or purgatory, like those of Adamnan, Drythelm, Tundale, Laisren, saint Fursey and St Patrick.

Clarudh?? Sauna?

None. Approximately 3 o’clock.

Cassini is, of course, a Latin word, meaning “They sing.”

So finely. When it was said to you that all is not to take literally in the accounts of the Irish storytellers. Christian Jews and Muslims should do the same thing for their sacred books to them! They would look less stupid. To believe in the literal meaning of the Bible is not the evidence of intelligence. And to believe in the literal sense of Quran is an intellectual decline of the same order as that which we have just evoked.

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We enough denounced the terrible usual racism of Christians who see demons everywhere to emphasize that conversely in this precise example Christian intellectuals having written down this story seem on the contrary not to consider that gods of paganism are demons, but to compare them with kinds of angels.

Why not indeed. We do not see why the apparitions of angels or of saints would always be divine and the apparitions of entities of the religion having been previous to Christianity, always inevitably demonic . Such a " double standard" would be only one demonstration more of the racism inherent in the concept of chosen people or of true Israel (Verus Israel in Latin).

The Great Bardic Company . It is probably an allusion to the famous episode of the Tromdámh Guaire.

"On a day came thither Marban, Guaire's swineherd and own brother, a passing holy man, to the house of the importunate company, with intent to charge them with their wickedness and injustice and ignorance, for he grieved for the multitude of their unjust demands upon Guaire and the Connaught men and all the free tribes of Ireland. He called down

curses and malisons upon them from the breast of Almighty God if they should be two nights in one house or if they should make unjust demands on any in Erin until they should relate to him the tale of the Cattle raid of Cualnge " (Betha Colaim Chille).

So this tale is therefore the tale of the litmus tests . ….

The test known as the waiting at an altar is rather mysterious and leave us in bewilderment if it is not an interpolation due to the Christian underculture of the Middle Ages (the mention of the forged character who is the mythical Moses makes fear it).

But perhaps this is there too a litmus test making the gods intervening (since we are in front of an altar in a shrine). The god makes the one who drinks from this water perish if he lies or if he is guilty (for ancent Celts to lie and to be wrong it was the same thing).

The three stones and Sencha’s wooden lot casting of the wood (crannchur) are tests of the judgment of God type, which also make the deities intervene. The gods make people make the right choice or appear in a way or another in favor of that who is right.

A similar test existed on the Continent according to the Greek writer Artemidorus.

“The following story which Artemidorus has told about the case of the crows is still more fabulous: there is a certain harbor on the ocean coast, his story goes, which is surnamed "Two Crows," and in this harbor are to be seen two crows, with their right wings somewhat white; so the men who have disputes about certain things come here, put a plank on an elevated place, and then throw on barley cakes, each man separately; the birds fly up, eat some of the barley cakes, scatter the others; and the man whose barley cakes are scattered wins his lawsuit.” (Strabo, geography, book IV, chapter IV, 6.)

As for the lot casting of wood (crann chur) or stones, we can think that there were special days for that in the year according to the Coligny calendar which mentions some prinni loudin and prinni lag.

This kind of judgment of God, nonviolent and in a way through lot casting is the absolute piece of evidence that ancient Celts believed in the intervention of the gods, more precisely perhaps of Belin/Belen/Barinthus known as the Mannish (from the Isle of Man = Manannan) in favor of the innocent or more exactly besides (let us not be stupidly or naively black-and-white) in favor of that who told the truth. What is not completely the same thing. Let us say that it was the ancient version of the lie detector. The lot casting was supposed to favor the one who was right. Beautiful optimism from our spiritual ancestors. And that therefore contrarily what the great French specialist in the field of the 19th century, d’Arbois de Jubainville, affirms, completely mislaid by his quiet amorality.

The latter is right, however, undoubtedly with regard to the old wood of Sen son of Aige since we find there the same principle as that we see operating in the texts dealing with the Rhine water, supposed to distinguish the illegitimate child from the bastard one.

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The litmus test known as of the old wood of Sen son of Aige seems indeed to bring into play the power of water and resembles much the way in which the legitimacy of newborns was established on the Rhine banks.

« The Rhine does not mislead the Celts, for it sinks deep in its eddies their bastard infants, like a fitting avenger of an adulterous bed; but all those that it recognizes to be of pure descent it supports on the surface of the water and gives them back to the arms of the trembling mother, thus rewarding her with the safety of her child as incorruptible evidence that her marriage is pure and without reproach…. » (Julian the Apostate in one of his letters sent to the philosopher Maximus, epistle N° 16).

“The brave Celts test their children in the jealous Rhine,

And none regards himself as being the child's father

Until he sees it washed by that venerated river.

At once, when the babe has glided from its mother's lap and sheds its first tears,

The father himself lifts it and places it on his shield,

Caring nothing for its suffering for he does not feel for it like a father

Until he sees it judged by the bath in the river,

The test of conjugal fidelity.

The mother, suffering new pangs added to those of childbirth,

Even though she knows him to be the child's true father,

Waits in fear and trembling the pronouncement of the dubious wave “.

(Greek Anthology volume 3. Book IX. 125. Anonymous poems).

“After the Eridan River there is the land of the Tyrrhenians in the east of which we can see beginning the Alps, and from the middle of which runs out water of the Rhine, Celtic river, which, by a double mouth, is thrown in the boreal Ocean; its course is fast, sinuous, and it is not easy to build bridges on it. It is said this river, distinguishes the bastard children from the legitimate children; it holds the ones up, those who are legitimate; the others, who are not, it dispatches them to the bottom of water and into oblivion (Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes).

It is possible that the legend exaggerated and generalized: if really all the Celts of Rhenish countries were accustomed to carry their children to the rivers and to recognize themselves fathers only after the verdict of water, it would be amazing that such a common and such a visible use had been noticed by nobody before Julian and that Julian himself spoke about it only by hearsay. We can think, moreover, that it is only when a woman was accused or suspected of adultery it was resorted to the arbitration of the Rhine. This river, according to Clement of Alexandria, was often called upon as witness of the oaths. It is therefore probable that the accused mother was invited initially to swear by the Rhine and, secondly, if the accuser persisted, to subject the child to the sacred water test.

And there was to be some children surviving such a test since the Celtic chief Viridomarus was known as "son of the Rhine.

"Claudius also threw the enemy back when they’d crossed the Rhine,

At that time when the Belgic shield of the giant chieftain Virdomarus was brought here.

He boasted he was born of the Rhine itself (Propertius. Book IV. 10).

The Vessel of Badurn and Cormac’s cup are more enigmatic since these litmus tests imply that a mysterious force (some gods ?) breaks these objects in the event of a lie. Difficult to believe but perhaps is there an allegory in the same vein as the preceding litmus tests: the intervention of the Celtic gods alongside the one who is right and who tells the truth (for ancient Celts it was the same thing besides we already announced).

Very different in their functioning principle on the other hand (there is no longer lot-casting) are the litmus tests known as adz or axe of Mochta and Luchta’s iron, even the waiting at the altar and the cauldron of truth.

The adz or axe of Mochta and Luchta's iron or cauldron of truth are litmus tests making intervening therefore the power of the mind over the body, which resists fire. We are there in the field of fakirism or of fire-walking we can see here and there in the world and particularly in the lands of Hindu culture.

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With regard to the cauldron of truth, we don’t agree with d’Arbois de Jubainville who sees in it another illustration of the power of the element water in the research of truth. It is indeed more than obvious that, there too, the element fire plays a part.

Fire walking is not a new phenomenon, this tradition belongs to the human culture since a very long time. Already mentioned in the Bible (Proverbs 6:28), and abundantly practiced in Reunion Island. It forms part and parcel of magic and religious rituals in many cultures. Hindus, Tibetan Buddhists and other modern mystics or esoterician like to practice it.

Contrary to some claims from fakirs and gurus, walk on the live embers bed is done rather quickly: the contact of each foot on embers lasts less than one second, and fewer than ten steps are usually necessary to cross the surface. It should not be forgotten that the heat absorbed by each step is progressive. Like when you walk barefoot on some sand heated by the sun: the feeling of heat becomes unbearable only after some steps. This is why the record of more long fire walking stated by the Guinness book was limited to 120 feet (approximately 35 meters). If a mystical power were really working, why one could not walk in full safety on much longer distances?

N.B. The Morann’s two (or three) collars have nothing to do with fakirism and phenomena of fire walking, which leaves us rather perplex. If one of our readers has an idea (a misunderstood symbol, a shortened text?) that he tells us.

142

THE ADVENTURES OF NERA.

ECHTRA NERAI.

It is an account which dates back to the 10th century. Its topic is the festival of Samon (ios). There still, several manuscripts preserved to us its contents. One of them in the Egerton collection (number 1782) which dates back approximately to the16th century, one in the Leabhar Buidhe Leacáin (Yellow Book of Lecan) which dates back to the 15th and also a fragment in the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum also of the 15th century.

To notice: the episode of the saga of the Hesus Cuchulainn entitled in Gaelic language “Tain bo regamna” seems to be a torn-off episode of it.

!---------- ----------------------- ------------------- !

One evening of Samon (aidqi samnoi) Ailill and Medb were in the castle of Cruachan with their whole household. They set about cooking food. Two captives had been hanged by them the day before that. Then Ailill said: ‘He who would now put a withe round the foot of either of the two captives that are on the gallows will have a prize for it from me, as he may choose.’

Great was the darkness of that night and its horror, demons would appear on that night always. Each man of them went out in turn to try that night, and quickly would he come back into the house.

"It is me I shall have the prize from you,’ said Nera, ‘and I shall go out.”

"So you will have this my gold-hilted sword here,’ said Ailill.

Then this Nera went out towards the captives, and put good armor on him. He put a withe round the foot of one of the two captives. Thrice it sprang off again. Then the captive said to him, unless he put a proper peg on it, though he be at it till the morrow, he would not fix his peg on it. Then Nera put a proper peg on it.

Said the captive from the gallows to Nera: ‘That is manly, O Nera!’ ‘Manly indeed!’ said Nera.

‘In order to prove the truth of your valor, carry me on your shoulders (on your neck ?), that I may get a drink with you. I was very thirsty when I was hanged.’

‘Come on here then!’ said Nera. So he went on his neck. ‘To which place shall I carry you?’ said Nera. ‘To the house which is nearest to us’ , said the captive.

So they went to that house. Then they saw something. A lake of fire round that building.

‘There is no drink for us in this house,’ said the captive. ‘There is no fire without sparing in it ever.

Let us therefore go to the other house, which is nearest to us.’ They went to it then and saw a lake of water around it. ‘Do not go to that house!’ said the captive. Ni gnath athinndlad na athfotraccod na ambor co némiud. There is nothing to wash his hands or his feet neither bathtub nor slop pail??? In it at night after sleeping. Let us still go to the other house. Now there is my drink in this house,’ said the captive. He [Nera] let him down on the floor. He went into the house. There were tubs for washing and bathing in it, and a drink in either of them. Also a slop pail (ambor co némiud) on the floor of the house.

He then drinks a draft of either of them and scatters the last sip from his lips at the faces of the people that were in the house, so that they all died. Henceforth it is not advised [to have] either a tub for washing or bathing, or a fire without sparing [of wood] , or a slop pail (ambor co némiud) in a house for the night.

Thereupon he carried him back to his torture, and Nera returned to Cruachan. Then he saw something. The castle was burnt before him, and he beheld a heap of heads of their people [cut off] by [foreign] warriors. He went after the host then into the cave of Cruachan. ‘A human is with us on the track here!’ said the last warrior while looking at Nera. ‘Heavier is the march ?’, said his comrade to him, and each man said that comment to his mate from the last man to the first man. Thereupon they reached the sid of Cruachan and went into it. Then the heads were displayed to the king in the sid.

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‘What shall be done to the human that came with you?’ said one of them.

‘Let him come hither, that I may speak with him,’ said the king. Then Nera came to them and the king said to him: ‘What brought you with the warriors into the sid?’ ‘I came in the company of your host,’ said Nera.

‘Go now to yonder house,’ said the king. ‘There is a single woman there, who will make the welcome. Tell her it is from me you are sent to her, and come every day to this house with a burden of firewood.’

Then he did as he was told. The woman bade him welcome and said: ‘Welcome to you, if it is the king that sent you hither.’ ‘It is he, truly,’ said Nera. And every day Nera used to go with a burden of firewood to the dun. He saw each time a blind man and a lame man on his shoulders (on his neck ?) coming out of the castle before him. They would go until they were at the brink of a well located before the castle. ‘Is it there?’ said the blind man. ‘It is indeed,’ said the lame one. ‘Then let us go away,’ said the lame man.

Nera then asked the woman about this. ‘Why do the blind and the lame man visit the well every day?’ ‘They visit the crown, which is in the well,’ said the woman, ‘viz, a tiara (mionn) of gold, which the king wears on his head, it is there it is kept.’ ‘Why do those two go?’ said Nera. ‘Not hard to tell,’ said she, ‘because it is they that are trusted by the king to visit the crown.One of them was blinded, the other lamed.’

‘Come hither a little,’ said Nera to his wife, ‘that you may tell me of my adventures now.’

‘What has appeared to you?’ said the woman.

‘Not hard to tell,’ said Nera. ‘When I was going into the sid, methought the stronghold of Cruachan was destroyed and Ailill and Medb with their whole household had fallen in it.’

‘That is not true indeed,’ said the woman, ‘ but a host of amoks ( siabra) nevertheless already set out against you. That will come true,’ said she, unless he would reveal it to his friends.

‘How shall I give warning to my people?’ said Nera.

‘Rise and go to them,’ said she. ‘They are still round the same cauldron and the charge has not yet been removed from the fire.’

Yet it had seemed to him three days and three nights since he had been in the sid. ‘Tell them to be on their guard when Samon (ios) will be coming unless they come here before to destroy the sid. For I will promise them this: the sid to be destroyed by Ailill and Medb, and the crown of Briun to be carried off by them.’

[These are the three things, which were found in it, viz: the mantle of Loegaire in Armagh, the crown of Briun in Connaught, and the shirt of Dunlaing in Leinster in Kildare.]

‘How will it be believed of me that I have gone into the sid?’ said Nera.

‘Take fruits of summer with you,’ said the woman. Then he took wild garlic with him and primrose and golden fern.

« I shall be pregnant by you,’ said she, and shall bear you a son. Send a message from you , when your people will come to destroy the sid, that you may take your family and your cattle from it safe and sound’.

Thereupon Nera went to his people, and found them around the same cauldron; then he related his adventures to them. His sword was given to him, and he stayed with his people to the end of a year. That was the very year, in which Fergus son of Roech came as an exile from the land of Ulster to Ailill and Medb to Cruachan.

‘Your appointment has come, oh Nera,’ said Ailill to him. ‘Arise and bring your people and your cattle from the sid, that we may go to destroy it.’

Then Nera went to his wife in the sid, and she bade him welcome. ‘Arise out to the castle now,’ said the woman to Nera, ‘and take a burden of firewood with you. I have gone to it for a whole year with a burden of firewood on my neck every day in your stead, and I said you were in sickness. And there is also your son yonder.’ Then he went out to the castle and carried a burden of firewood with him on his shoulders.

‘Welcome alive from the sickness in which you were!’ said the king. ‘But I am displeased that the woman should sleep with you without asking.’

‘Your will shall be done about this,’ said Nera.

‘It will not be hard for you,’ said the king.

He went back to his house.

‘Now tend your kine today!’ said the woman. ‘I gave a cow of them to your son at once after his birth.’

144

And Nera went with his cattle that day.

Editor’s Note . Here intervenes the episode which we have already announced as also belonging from now on to the epic of our great national hero the Hesus Cuchulainn (Tain bo regamna).

But then while he was asleep the Mara Rigu/Morrigu/Morgan La Fey took the cow of his son, and the Donn Termagant bulled the cow in the east of Cualnge. Then she went again westwards with the cow. Hesus Cuchulainn overtook them in the plain of Murthemne as they passed across it. For it was one of the hesus Cuchulainn’s gessa (prohibitions) that even a woman should leave his land without his knowledge [It was another of his gessa that birds should feed on his land, unless they left something with him behind them. It was another of his gessa that fish should be in the estuaries unless they fell by him. It was another of his gessa that warriors of another tribe should be in his land without his challenging them, before morning, if they came at night, or before night, if they came in the day. Lastly, every maiden and every single woman that was in Ulster, they were in his ward till they were promised in marriage. These were the gessa of the Hesus Cuchulainn] .

The Hesus Cuchulainn overtook therefore the Mara Rigu/Morrigu/Morgan La Fey with her cow, and he said: ‘This cow must not be taken.’

Nera went back then to his house with his kine in the evening. ‘But the cow of my son is missing,’ said he. ‘I did not deserve that you should go and tend kine in that way,’ said his wife to him. On that came the cow. ‘A wonder now! Whence does this cow come?’

‘Truly, she comes from Cualnge, after being bulled by the Donn Termagant ,’ said the woman.

‘Rise out now, lest your warriors come,’ she said.

‘This host cannot go for a year t. Therefore they will come on during the next night of Samon (aidqi shamanai) for sidhs of Ireland are always opened about Samon (ios)’.

Nera went to his people. ‘Whence come you?’ said Ailill and Medb to Nera, ‘and where have you been since you did go from us?’

‘I was in fair lands,’ said Nera, ‘with great treasures and precious things, with plenty of beautiful garments and food, and of wonderful treasures. They will come to slay you on next Samon’s eve (oidqi hsamnoi) unless it had been revealed to you.’

‘We will, of course, go against them,’ said Ailill. So they remain there till the end of the year.

‘Now if you have anything in the sid,’ said Ailill to Nera, ‘bring it away.’ So Nera went on the third day before Halloween and brought her drove out of the sid. Now as the bull calf, viz, the calf of the cow of Aingene (Aingene was the name of his son) went out of the sid, it bellowed thrice. At that same hour Ailill and Fergus were playing tablut (fithcilli), when they heard something, the bellowing of the bull calf in the plain. Then said Fergus:

I do not like the calf

Bellowing in the plain of Cruachan,

The son of the black bull of Cualnge, which approaches,

The young son of the bull from Loch Laig.

There will be calves without cows

On Bairche in Cualnge,

Cichis reim roirge ind rig

The contortionist (reim) will break out against the king ???

Through this calf of Aingene.

[Aingene was the name of the man and Be Aingeni the name of the woman, and the appearance which this Nera saw on them was the same as that which the Hesus Cuchulaind saw in the rustling of the cow of Regamna-Tain Bo Regamna-].

Then the bull calf and the Whitehorn meet in the plain of Cruachan. A night and a day they were there fighting, until at last the bull calf was beaten. And then he bellowed. ‘What did the calf bellow?’ Medb asked of her neat-herd, whose name was Buaigle.

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‘I know that, my good master (bopa) Fergus,’ said Bricriu, ‘it is the strain (laid) which you sang in the morning.’ On that Fergus glanced aside and struck with his fist at Bricriu’s head, so that the five pawns of the tablut board that were in his hand, went into Bricriu’s head, and it was a lasting hurt to him.

‘Tell me, O Buaigle, what did the young bull say?’ said Medb.

‘Truly, it said,’ answered Buaigle, ‘if its father came to tight with it, viz, the Donn Termagant of Cualgne, it would not be seen [ the Whitehorn] in Ai, and it would be beaten [ and dragged ] throughout the whole plain [ of Ai] on every side.’ And then said Medb in the manner of an oath: ‘ Tonga Na dea thungus mo tuath’ ‘I swear by the gods that my people swear by that I shall not lie down, nor sleep on down or flock bed, nor shall I drink buttermilk (blathcha) nor nurse my side, nor drink red ale nor white (dergflatha na finn) , nor shall I taste food, until I see those two kine fighting before my face.

Thereafter the men of Connaught and the black host of exile went into the sid, and destroyed it, then took out what there was in it. It is like this they brought away the crown of Briun that is the third wonderful gift in Ireland, the mantle of Loegaire in Armagh, and the shirt of Dunlaing in Leinster in Kildare. Nera was left with his people in the sidh, and has not come out until now, nor will he come till Doom.

Finit. The end.

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Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 40.

Two captives had been hanged. One loses oneself in conjecture about the meaning of this macabre detail worthy of the worst rituals of sorcery . Whole pieces of this story are to be missing. It was perhaps in fact a human sacrifice that of two war prisoners.

Demons would appear on that night always. Objective translation of this usual denigration by Christianity of any religion other than its: gods were used to appear more particularly on this day, a little like Jesus or the angels of God at Christmas, for example.

The captive said to him. Do we have to understand that these two prisoners were only on standby of being hanged??

Lake of fire, lake of water. It sounds like one of the visions of hell or purgatory according to Adamnan, Tundale, Laisren, St Fursey and St Patrick. This account makes us therefore passably perplexed.

Siabra. Siabrad is a Gaelic word meaning distortion due to a supernatural influence or to an unspecified possession. Siabra are therefore kinds of malefic creatures.

To the end of a year. i.e., until the following Samon (ios).

Contortionist. Gaelic reim. An allusion perhaps to the great Hesus Cuchulainn.

The black exile. They are all the Ulaid like Fergus or many personal friends of the Hesus Cuchulainn having been banished from the kingdom after the terrible civil war which devastated it (see the rustling of the cattle of Cualnge, Tain bo Cualnge) and who had found refuge in the kingdom of Ailill and Medb.

The Doom day. Obvious Christian interpolation.

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THE SUPERNATURAL BEING’S FRENZY.

Baile in scail.

Account relating to kings of Tara dating back to the ninth century. A first version of the same story but even shorter is the Baile Chuind Chétchathaig (eighth century). Some specialists see there a parallel with the search for the grail by Perceval. Primarily two manuscripts.

Rawlinson B 512 (complete).

Harleian 5280 (end is missing).

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One day Conn was in Tara, after overthrowing the kings. Early in the morning he went up onto the royal rampart , before sunrise, together with his three druids, Mael, Bloc, and Bluicne, and his three veledae, Ethain,Corb and Cesarn. For that company used to arise every day to keep watch lest the men of the sidh capture Ireland without his noticing.

It is onto the rampart indeed that he always used to go; and one day he chanced upon a stone beneath his feet and trod upon it. The stone cried out beneath him , so that it was heard throughout all Tara, and throughout Brega. Then Conn asked his druids why the stone had cried out, what its name was, whence it had come and whither it would go, and why it had come to Tara. The druid said to Conn that he would not name it to him until fifty-three days had passed. When that number was complete, Conn asked the druid again.

Then the druid said: "Fal is the name of the stone. It is the island of Fal from which it was brought. Temair Tíri Fáil i forromadh. It is in Tara of the land of Fal that it has been placed. It is in the land of Tailtiu that it will remain until the Day of Judgment. And it is in that land that there will be a festive assembly for as long as there is kingship in Tara; and the ruler who does not find it ? on the last day of the assembly will be a doomed man in that year. Fal cried out beneath your feet today," said the druid, "and prophesied. The number of cries which the stone uttered is the number of kings that there will be of your race until the Day of Judgment. It is not I who will name them to you.” Said the druid.

Then they saw a great mist around them, so that they did not know whither they were going because of the greatness of the darkness which had come upon them. They heard the noise of a horseman coming towards them. "Woe is us," said Conn, "if he brings us into an unknown land!" Then the horseman made three spear casts at them, and the last cast came to them more quickly than the first. "He is setting out to wound a king," said the druid, "whoever makes a cast at Conn in Tara!" Then the horseman ceased his casting, and came up to them, then bade Conn welcome, and invited him to come with him to his dwelling.

Then they went on until they came into a plain, and a golden tree was there. There was a house there with a ridgepole (octae) of white bronze , thirty feet in length. They went into the house, and saw a young woman there, and a crown of gold was on her head. There was a silver vat with hoops of gold around it, full of red ale. There was a dipper of gold on its lip, and a cup of gold before her. They saw the supernatural being himself (scal) in the house, before them on his throne. There was never in Tara a man of his size or his beauty, on account of the fairness of his form and the wondrousness of his appearance.

He answered them and said, "I am not a supernatural being (scal) nor a phantom. I have come on account of my fame among you, since my death. I am of the race of Adam: my name is Lug son of Eithliu son ( ?) of Tigernmas. And this is why I have come: to relate to you the length of your reign, and of every reign which there will be in Tara."

The girl who sat before then in the house was the Sovereignty of Ireland, and it was she who gave Conn his meal: the rib of an ox and the rib of a boar. The ox rib was twenty-four feet long and eight

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feet between its arch and the ground. Before distributing drink the girl said, "For whom this cup ?" and the superhuman being answered her.

When she had thus made named every ruler until the Day of Judgment, the shadow of the superhuman being extended on them, so that they saw neither the enclosure nor the house. The vat and the golden dipper and the cup were left with Conn. Hence are the stories entitled: “vision of the supernatural being” and “the adventures and journey of Conn.”

--------------------------- ------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ----------------------------- -----------

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 41.

Tara. The glossary of Cormac (10thcentury) explains why the Gaelic word temair (tara) means high place, a hill which can be used for observation. Other authors think that this name means “the dark one.”

Tailtiu. Od Celtic Talantio. Another name for the mother-earth. Perhaps more precisely the name of a goddess of the farmed lands (since it is a clearing).

Fifty-three days. This rather long time was undoubtedly necessary to the druid who was to seek the answer. A time to question people more erudite than him perhaps. There is the same phenomenon with Muhammad at least according to the asbabu-n-nuzul or circumstances of the revelation of chapter 17 verse 85 of the Quran: "They are asking the concerning the spirit. Say : the spirit is by command of my lord" .

Polytheistic people of Mecca would have decided indeed one day to send to Yathreb/Medina two of the fiercest critics of Muhammad, Uqba Ibn Abu Mu'ayt and An-Nadr bin Al-Harith, in order to question the chief rabbis and other doctors of the Jewish Law about him.

However those said to them, in order to test his veracity , to ask the three following questions to Muhammad:

Who are people of the Cave and what is their story

Who is the one who traveled all over the Earth from Sunrise to Sunset?

What is the spirit?

Muhammad spent fifteen days answering. The time to document himself on the question or to carry out some research in connection with the Christian legend of the seven sleepers of Ephesus or the romance of Alexander the Great (Dhul-Qarnayn).

A golden tree. A similar tree has been found , but in miniature, at the time of the excavations of the Manching hill fort in Germany (1984). It was an oak offspring surrounded by ivy.

A silver vat with loops of gold around it. The holy grail therefore, filled with the druidic equivalent of the Haoma/Soma of the Indo-Iranian ones.

I am of the race of Adam. It is either an astonishing manifestation of euhemerism from the Christian monk having transcribed this story, or as usual a coarse intrusion from him in our myths to us. In any event gods cannot die or at least if they die, it is to reappear at once. But perhaps our author wants simply to evoke the withdrawal out of this world of the gods, nauseated by men.

The sovereignty of Ireland. We are very astonished by such an effort of allegorical interpretation of the Christian monk having transcribed this legend, worthy of former druids.

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THE MIDNIGHT COURT.

CUIRT AN MHEAN OICHE.

By Brian Merriman (1747-1805).

The Court of Midnight (Cúirt An Mheán Oíche) is an almost modern work of Brian Merriman. Merriman was a mathematics professor, who lived or worked in the counties of Clare and Limerick. The Cúirt An Mheán Oíche, which is in fact his single poetic work, was written around 1780.

!------------------ ------------------------------- ---------- !

The Prologue.

The poet sets out alone on a summer morning but then encounters a fearsome woman. She drags him through the mud to Monmoy Hill where a court is sitting presided over by Aoibheal, a very beautiful queen of fairies.

‘Twas my custom to stroll with the river in view

Through the fresh meadows covered with dew,

By the edge of the woods on the wild mountainside

At the dawn of the day, I’d cheerfully stride

When…………….

Part Five: The Judgment and Resolution

Aoibheal delivers her judgment on the issues brought before the court. She foretells that priests soon will be allowed to marry also and she gives permission for the persecution of recalcitrant bachelors. Then the poet finds to his horror that he is the first to face the situation.

As she grabbed a pen, my head did hang

In terror of more torture from that gang;

While she was writing down the date

Which the court members round her could corroborate

I woke suddenly from my sleep, my pit of despair

And realized with relief—it was just a nightmare.

-------------------- --------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 42.

The poem begins by using the conventions of the Aisling, or vision poem. The poet is out walking when he has suddenly the vision of a woman from the next world. This woman is Ireland and the poem will lament her sad lot while calling on her 'sons' to rebel against foreign tyranny. In Merriman's hands, the poetic convention is made to take a satirical and deeply ironic twist.

In the opening section of the poem, a hideous female giant appears to the poet and drags him kicking and screaming to the court of Queen Aoibheal sovereign of the fairies. On the way to the ruined

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monastery at Moinmoy, the messenger explains that the Queen, disgusted by the twin corruptions of Anglo-Irish landlords and English Law, has taken the dispensing of justice upon herself. There follows a traditional court case under the Brehon law form of a three-part debate.

In the first part, a young woman calls on Aoibheal and declares her case against the young men of Ireland for their refusal to marry. She complains that, despite increasingly desperate attempts to capture a husband via all means, at iomana matches (hurling) , wakes, and patronal feast, the young men insist on ignoring her in favor of late marriages with much older women. The young woman further bewails the contempt with which she is treated by the married women of the village.

She is answered by an old man who first denounces the wanton promiscuity of young women in general, suggesting that the young woman who spoke before was conceived by a tinker under a cart. He vividly describes the infidelity of his own young wife. He declares his humiliation at finding her already pregnant on their wedding night and the gossip which has surrounded the "premature" birth of "his" son ever since. He disgustedly attacks the dissolute lifestyles of young women in general. Then he denounces marriage as "out of date." He demands that the Queen outlaw it altogether and replace it with a system of free love.

The young woman, however, is infuriated by the old man's words and is barely restrained from physically attacking him. She mocks his inability to fulfill his marital duties with his young wife, saying that she was a homeless beggar who married him to avoid starvation. She vividly argues that if his wife has taken a lover, she well deserves one. She then calls for the abolition of priestly celibacy, alleging that priests would otherwise make wonderful husbands and fathers. In the meantime, however, she will keep trying to attract an older man in hopes that her unmarried humiliation will finally end.

Finally, in the judgment section Queen Aoibheal rules that all laymen must marry before the age of 21, on pain of corporal punishment at the hands of Ireland's women. She advises them to equally target the romantically indifferent, homosexuals, and unmarried skirt chasers who boast of the number of notches on their belts. Aoibheal tells them to be careful, however, not to leave without thinking any man unable to father children. She also states that abolishing priestly celibacy is beyond her mandate and recommends patrience.

To the poet's horror, the younger woman angrily points him out as a 30-year-old, bachelor and describes her many failed attempts to attract his interest in hopes of becoming his wife. She declares that he must be the first man to suffer the consequences of the new marriage law. But as a crowd of infuriated women prepares to flog him, he awakens to find it was all a terrible nightmare.

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WELSH LITERATURE. WELSH LITERATURE. WELSH LITERATURE. WELSH LITERATURE.

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THE BLACK BOOK OF CARMARTHEN XVII.

LLYFR DU CAERFYRDDIN XVII.

All occurs as if there existed several Merlin. The famous magus or enchanter of the Arthurian cycle , but also a Merlin, Welsh poet, known as Myrddin. Possibly a legendary character known as Myrddin Wylt or Lailoken (if it is not the same one):the sylvan or wild Merlin. Briefly mentioned as a prophet or soothsayer in the life of St Kentigern/Mungo (by Jocelyn), but also in a Scottish legend of the 15th century.

In this account, St Kentigern/Mungo meets in a deserted place a naked and disheveled madman called Lailoken, that some people call Merlynum or Merlin, who declares being condemned to wander among wild beasts because of his sins. He says to have been the cause of the death of all the people having perished during the battle which was fought on the plain located between Liddel and Carwannok. After having told his history, this madman moves away and flees the presence of the saint to come back into his wild state. He still appears several times in the account then request finally last sacraments from the holy man, while prophesying to be about to die of a triple death . After some hesitations, the saint fulfills the wish of the unhappy madman; and then the shepherds of King Meldred capture him, strike him by blows with a stick, then throw him in the Tweed River where his body is bored by a pile, his prophecy being thus realized.

There exist also some Welsh poems (7) which were ascribed to a certain Myrddin. Here.

Gwin y Bid hi y Vedwen (the birch trees).

Yr Afallennau (the apple trees).

Yr Oianau (the greetings to the little pigs).

Ymddiddan Myrddin aThaliesin (the dialog of Myrddin and Taliesin).

Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer (the dialog of Myrddin and his sister Gwenddydd ).

Gwasgargerdd fyrddin yn y Bedd (the diffused prophetic songs of Myrddin in the grave)

Peirian Faban (commanding youth ).

This Myrddin has nothing to do with Arthur and appears after the Arthurian period. The first Welsh poems concerning the legend of Myrddin present him as a madman living a miserable existence in the Caledonian forest, brooding on his sad existence and on the disaster which pushed him over so low: the death of his lord Gwenddoleu l, he served as bard. The allusions made in these poems evoke the battle of Arfderydd, where Rhydderch Hael, king of Strathclyde , massacred the forces of Gwenddolau, the last pagan king in the area. Annals Cambriae place this battle in 573 and call the adversaries of Gwenddoleu: Gwrgi and Peredur, sons of Eliffer.

Below thus, Yr Afallennau or Yr Afallanau. They are ten stanzas in old Welsh of which 31 lines of verse (from stanzas 5 to 7) undoubtedly constitute the primitive core of the poem relating to Merlin, the other (prophetic) stanzas having been added thereafter. Below consequently the initial core of the poem.

Sweet apple tree of luxuriant growth!

I used to find food at its foot,

When because of a maid,

Shield on shoulder, sword on thigh ,

I slept alone in the woods of Caledonia….

……………………..

Sweet apple tree in the glade,

Trodden is the earth around its base.

The men of Rhydderch see me not,

Gwendyyd no longer loves nor greets me

I am hated by Rhydderch's strongest scion.

I have despoiled both his son and daughter:

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Death visits them all - why not me?

After Gwneddoleu no one shall honor me,

No diversions attend me,

No fair women visit me.

Though at Arderydd I wore a golden torque

The swan-white woman despises me now.

Sweet apple tree, with delicate blossom,

Growing concealed, in the wood!

At day break the tale was told to me

That my words had offended the most powerful minister,

Christ! that my end has come

Not once, not twice, but thrice in a single day.

Before the killing of Gwndydd's son

Was upon my hands!

VII

Sweet apple tree, growing by the river,

Who will thrive on its wondrous fruit?

When my reason was intact

I used to lie at its foot

With a fair wanton maid, of slender form.

Fifty years the plaything of lawless men

I have wandered in gloom among spirits

After great wealth, and gregarious minstrels,

I have been here so long

Not even sprites can lead me astray.

I never sleep, but tremble at the thought

Of my Lord Gwenddoleu and my own native people.

Long have I suffered unease and longing--

May I be given freedom in the end.

VIII

Sweet apple tree with your delicate blossom,

Growing amid the thickets of trees!

Sibyl foretells,

A tale that will come to pass

A staff of gold, signifying bravery

Will be given by the glorious Dragon Kings.

The grateful one will vanquish the profaner,

Before the child, bright and bold,

The Saxons shall fall, and bards will flourish

Sweet apple tree of crimson color,

Growing, concealed in the wood of Caledonia:

Though men seek your fruit, their search is vain

Until the Cadwaladyr comes from Cadfaon's meeting

To Teiwi River and Tywi's lands,

Till anger and anguish come from Arawynion,

And the longhairs are tamed.

Sweet apple tree of crimson color,

Crowing, concealed, in the wood of Caledonia

Thong men seek your fruit, their search is vain,

Till the Cadwaladyr comes from Rhyd Rheon's meeting,

And with Cynon advances against the Saxon.

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Victorious Cymry, glorious their leader,

All shall how their rights again,

All Britons rejoice, sounding joyful horns.

Chanting songs of happiness and peace!

----------------------- ----------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- --------------

Neo-druidic (comment) counter-lay No. 43.

Jesus. In theory Gwenddolau’s side was that of the last pagans. It is therefore there still from Christians, one of the forgings of texts called interpolation by specialists.

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APPENDIX.

FIRST ATTEMPT OF SYNTHESIS

ON DRUIDIC SPIRITUALITY.

An old religion in new times, in the way of adaptation: such is druidism today. What means, in neo-druidism, consent to modern sciences (Copernican vision of the world , evolution of the species, historical criticism, etc.). Consent to the autonomy of these sciences too, but also of technology, economics and of culture.

Religion, clergy, theology, and sacred rights, should not all determine.

Central concepts of druidism: Tokad (the supreme Fate resulting from the Big Whole (Pariollon) ; former druids had indeed turned “chance “(sic) into a God-or-Devil. At least according to St Columba of Iona in one of the loricae ascribed to him.

“I do not adore the voices of birds… nor a son, neither CHANCE, nor the woman. Na mac, Na mana, Na mnan. My druid is the son of God…” etc."

The cosmic egg and the bubbling energy of the universal cauldron (the Grail); the soul as a piece of the universal soul, individualized (the anamone ); the salvation (the means of escaping the vicious circle of punishing reincarnations into bacuceus or seibarus); the cyclic history and its astronomical figures, it is the case to say (billion years); are concepts very different from these of the Judeo-Islamic-Christianity of origin. Druidism calls upon the reason and the ability to know of Man, but refuses every vain speculation about the eternal hell or the Love of God for his creatures…

A religion without bogus intellectual claim therefore, modest, and made to measure.

Druidism takes note of the insufficiency of this changing world, of its universal obsolescence and teaches paths thanks which simple mortals can reach a higher blossoming through their own efforts (moksha in Hinduism) or by some help come from Fate; directly or while going through an intermediate stage.

Druidism therefore endeavors to go, in various ways, ahead of the anxiety of today men, by proposing some paths, i.e., lifestyles, rites and techniques, in short A COMPATIBLE WITH DEGROWTH practice, better than among the French Amish around 1850. No wisdom without concentration of the thought. At the beginning of druidism, the meditation as a means of self-discipline formed a central element of the way of the elite warriors: direct experiment and immediate, enlightenment, of the individual therefore (in Shaolin according to Bodhidharma and his kung fu). In short, God helps those who help themselves! As Arrian said it very well (Hunting XXXIV):

« This Celtic law I follow, because I declare no human undertaking to have a prosperous issue without the interposition of the gods…”

Non-Fenian people themselves can reach the state of awenydd or auentieticos in this life, and they often do, in unexpected situations and in the usual course of their daily life (Faith is enough!) The ideal in this case is not the Fenian who lives a life different from ordinary life, it is the druidicist Ategnatos (aware and organized druidicist) who lives in the world. The challenge of neo-Druidism is indeed the conversion of the whole man (without Hellenic-Christian dualism body / soul), and notwithstanding the egocentrism of its animal origin (whatever the way in which we want to understand the famous disease of Ulaid known as Ces Noinden in Gaelic language) ...... to the real world.

Druidism is metaphysics, not of nothingness, but of the becoming between Nothingness and Being. A metaphysics which starts from the relativity of this world to go to the real world.

The anaon is radically, essentially, and almost perpetually, in connection with the universal including everything of the Big Whole (nirvana among Buddhists). It is a set of spiritual, physical, emotional, factors,a conglomeration of factors capable of direction and of mental change, good or bad.

Unlike Buddhism, in druidism, this spiritual self of anaon, however, also gets its share of reality, it is not a total illusion. "I think that I am, but also I think therefore I am."

The stake is a radical change of our anaon (of this soul / mind) in order to access a new existence.

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As many Celtic legends depicting illusions or temporary metamorphoses show it, we must not blindly rely on mere appearances of the world by the Fata Mara Rigu / Morrigu / Morgan or the Deva Danu (bia) .

Man must become free for the inaccessible superior truth, which exceeds mystic thought as well as metaphysical speculation, but which can only be found in focusing. This blossoming of the soul, called moksha by Hinduists, is on the cosmic level a connection with everything, which excludes any absolutization of the spiritual subject (anamone or menman); including the god-or-demons of former Druidism or of Celtic peoples.

Druidism got a message across all times. A destiny in the cycles of life of the become eternal matter. Even in the negativity of suffering, abandonment, death (in all its forms: beheading, hanging, crucifixion, etc. see the cases of Crixus, Mariccos, Cuchulainn, and so on).

To put an end to human suffering, Druidism proposes a triple bridge, at once the Cinvat of Zoroaster and the Kung Fu of Bodhidharma, and by the very fact, makes the freeing of the cycle of infernal rebirths, possible. The rebirths into bacuceos or into seibaros, = in ghosts (Irish siabair / siabhradh), left straightly from the kingdom of Tethra, even of Donn (Donnotegia).

In other words, beyond the basic ethical gessa (a certain selflessness, an aspiration to overcome earthly existence, with its inconstancy, its sufferings, and its disappointments); an opening towards a supreme blossoming through a definitive melting or fusion with the Big Whole (via his antechamber, the other world called Mag Meld?)

1. The first path of this three lanr bridge is the philosophical or scientific knowledge, therefore the realization that the individual spiritual self (the soul / mind called anaon) is not an absolute immanent (druidic druid path).

2. The second way of this triple bridge concerns methods of meditation and of forces focus. Through them you can be united with the symbol of Supreme Fate (the Grail) even in the deepest layers of your psyche, thus reaching the state of awenydd or auentieticos, that is to say that of a blossoming of soul. What Indians call moksha. A climb up to the Big Whole amounting to a fusion / disappearance in it. There contact with Tokad is deepened to "the You in which the I is completely dissolved.”

2 bis. A variant of this second path emphasizes the Cuchulainn martial arts, and is suitable for those who have a hotheaded temperament (Vergio = sacred fury); to use, for example, in order to help friendly peoples, forced to enter a desperate bagaude against invaders or unscrupulous occupiers.

3. The third path of this tthree lane bridge concerns the ethical behavior of the one who does not want to make too much bran (too much karmic residue) capable of being accumulated on his soul through his mind or menman. Celtic ethic is also a part of this druidic doctrine of blossoming of souls called moksha by Indians. It has nothing of the fulfillment of ten or eleven divine , more or less relevant (Decalogue) as among Judeo-Islamic Christians. It is based on dialectics enlightened if necessary by advice given by druids to their dagolitoi (their faithful). Among other things, they aim to control senses, fertility, fecundity, or wealth. So not an ethic of conviction but an ethic of responsibility. It is the behaving in a long-term vision, the salutary behavior for the one who, tirelessly, complies with it.

The human being, awareness of this world, has the time of this space which is our to be healed from his original weakness (see the allegory of the Ulaid disease, Ces noinden), and in any case the Fate (The Tokad), can also free him, spontaneously from the infernal cycle of penalizing rebirths in "bacuceos.” In bacuceos or seibaros = ghost (Irish siabair / siabhradh) straightly left from the kingdom of Tethra, or even of Donn (Donnotegia).The Tokad can always redeem human faults (eric wergeld), erase the bran (the karmic residue) by a free intervention of his sovereignty.

We will suggest therefore the summary of the druidic knowledge hereafter, to all those who will want well to read it, to use it, to work it. It can help them to live and fulfill their personal destiny, while contributing to that of Mankind.

If we look at the history of religions with eyes opened by this central truth that only an inner blossoming can make approached, we remain at the same time surprised and filled with wonder. What we see resembles hardly what the Torah, the Bible, even the Quran, teach, which refer to a “Revelation “ beginning with the apostasy of Abraham even of Muhammad. Let us notice nevertheless in what relates to him that the comparison with the Judeo-Christianity was only progressive and that it

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remained incomplete or chaotic. The main part of the rites of the pilgrimage to Mecca for example remained pagan.

All great religions have an external history and an inner history, one visible and published, the other more or less hidden. By External History, it is necessary to understand the “official “account of the foundation then of the evolution development of such or such religion, plus the dogmas and/or the myths taught in Schools or by Masters, and recognized in the worship.

By inner History, it is necessary to hear the thorough motivations of the great thinkers, prophets or reformers like Ambicatus or Akhenaten, who created, supported and spread, at their beginnings, these same religions.

The first, the official or not history, the one which is read in books, happens in the light, but is not less rather obscure, confused, even contradictory.

The second is even more difficult to disentangle, because it happens in the back of the shrines, within non-public conferences or fraternities. And its more striking dramas are ascribed to mental throes in the soul/mind of great prophets like Ambicatus or Zoroaster, who generally entrusted to no parchment neither to any disciple, their supreme crises, nor their ecstasies.

This hidden history is therefore necessary to guess it, but starting from serious indications. With regard to druidism, it is always luminous and in thorough harmony with itself, because, like the Alsatian Edward Schure wrote; “ Here we grasp the generative point of Religion and Philosophy, the other end of the ellipse of integral science. This point corresponds to the immanent/transcendent truths. We find in it the cause, the origin, and the end of the prodigious work of ages “.

As indicated, first of all, and on several occasions, Druidism comprises as regards theology, several options, although leading all to the same high-level ethics. In what follows, the selected formulation will be that which grants the greatest possible room to the contents of ancient paganism, that of the single being of beings but like the emerald of the Holy Grail endowed with multiple facets.

Going still further, we will present even spirituality which can be deduced from it.

Emanation of the Fate or Tokade, inspiration, a form of boudism (of charisma) ascribable to the divinity, guided the reflection of the druids of mystical type. Particularly in their development of doctrines much superior in elevation and in logic than the thought of the other representatives of the priestly class of Aryan origin. Their influence over the Celtic or Celtized peoples (cf. Ambicatus) was deserved by their dignity, their wisdom and their reputation of justice. It was to help them to make these peoples reach the aspects of Truth which could be immediately and spontaneously comprehensible for them. A truth, of course, partial, complete content of the druidic doctrines not being likely to be understood without reflexive effort, by the very whole population. Nevertheless, this even partial, Truth, which was delivered to it, was going to support it and inspire it.

The readers directing themselves towards another option will only have to think, “metaphor according to which… “or “allegory symbolizing “etc. like in the text in Gaelic language heading Baille in scail or Echtra Cormaic i Tír Tairngiri, to draw from it an advantageous quintessence as a food for thought intended to their personal quest for the holy Grail.

There was in former druidism room for the elementary religious needs of which Man does not have to feel shame.

The men then needed to feel the presence of the divinity and of being able to locate it in known sacred hot spots, where spirit breathes (for example the hill of Sion in spite of its 545 meters only above sea level). Where gravity of the soul makes it go down in the matter, where they found comprehension with regard to their daily concerns, consolation, assistance, and cure (the god-or-demons of then were of the kind anextiomaros, iovantucaros, virotutis, dunatis, toutatis…).

Some wits will undoubtedly laugh at anthropomorphic characteristics of some elements of the druidic speech (its taking into account of mythology for example, its long tradition of fight against the god-or-demons, or of revolts. As if Jacob himself had not fought against an angel in Genesis 32,9, before becoming Israel!)

Actually, even our mots intellectualized designs of the Fate (of Tokad) are unable to understand the ultimate reality of it. These concepts themselves were created by analogy with Man. They are and they remain some an-alogues. i.e., some words which say something starting from human experiments,

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and of which we can only hope that they open to us a living approach of the higher Destiny of Mankind , imperceptible, incomprehensible, which includes and penetrates everything.

Former druids had turned “chance “(sic) into a God-or-Demiurge according to St Columba of Iona in one of his loricae: “I do not adore the voices of birds… nor a son, neither CHANCE, nor the woman (Na mac, Na mana, Na mnan). My druid is sons of God… etc. “

Is there another solution for we uns, humble mortals?

The Judeo-Islamic-Christians claim that yes, but in reality their theory is even more anthropomorphic and anthropocentric than druidic philosophy (Unawareness? Blindness? Hypocrisy?)

Truth is not the same thing as the factual one. Subjective truth, of a religion, is not necessarily the same thing as historical truth. Just as there are several levels, layers or modes of reality; similarly there are several levels, layers, or modes, of truth.

The death of a young woman killed by an unhappy love affair can go unnoticed, in the column of news items. But the fictitious story of the unhappy love affairs of Tristan and Iseult moved whole generations. Why? Because it contains more inner truth than journalistic information, that it is not only a pure fact, a purely historical truth, but an existential truth. Facing a story like that of Tristan and Iseult, the objection of historians: “But that never existed! “is inadequate! Poetry, legend, have their own reason, and can, too, carry truths. Beside the logic of the head, there is a place for the logic of the heart.

Unlike veledae and bards working out the huge Celtic mythology, meanwhile “Historicizing myths or mythifying History “ the druids themselves distinguished genres well, and did not mix History and Quest for the inner Grail of each one.

As regards history, druidism sticks with its ethics. To know and not to lie, but as regards the Quest, on the other hand, it is less interested in the historical objective truth, which, moreover, it does not neglect necessarily, as we have just seen it. There, it sticks especially with continuing the search for saving truth (it is anextiomaros, iovantucaros, virotutis,dunatis, toutatis): therefore a research renewing itself continuously through an individual Quest.

Ancient Druidism saw there an additional reason to practice only verbal statements, by avoiding having “Holy Scriptures “.

The Celtic myths express more than one truth, if we can extract them. And for neo-druidism it is not a question to draw from this mythology some historical information (recollection of such or such a historical cataclysm or of such or such a warlike raid), but to release then to hand down from them lessons to be meditated.

The first interest of this mythology thus considered is therefore not a purely “theoretical “truth but the food for thought that we can withdraw from it.

Celtic myths reveal underlying structures of the Man and of the World, of the Space and of the Time, as in the case of the voyage of Bran son of Febal for example, even of the adventures of Nera ;they show way of life, provide a life orientation, and are therefore bringing some "saving “ power (anextiomaros, iovantucaros, virotutis).

To view in these myths only historical events would be an erroneous concept. In druidism it was never done.

We should not eliminate purely and simply the myths and their contents. An excessive rationalization would have as a result a spiritual impoverishment. We should not reject purely and simply the Celtic myths which, at the same time veil and reveal, by viewing them only as superstition and poetic embroidery. They open the door to the mysteries of Tokad (of Destiny) and of its auxiliary the poetic justice.

The Celtic myth, so much muddled, contradictory, or extravagant, that it can often appear, since the Christianization, contains already a share of “logy “.

Made of accounts and yet not historical, heavy with hidden but non-conceptual meaning, it can be nevertheless in an expressive , personifying, way, an approach of ultimate reality,after the nothingness the being of beings . Conversely, all these myths should not either be taken literally. Such mystification of the “Jewish, Christian, or Muslim “type would have as a consequence an unbelief growing.

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We should not, however, continue to hand them down as if they were the only possible expression of the druidic thought. They should be subjected to the objective criticism of the scientific thought (for example in the case of the famous Welsh triads by Iolo Morgannwg). The men need a new religious language which, without returning upstream the philosophy of the Enlightenment century, but by being ahead of it, discovers a new meaning to all these former images and stories, to former symbols, and therefore to former myths.

Insofar as they are not located below our current, intellectual or ethical, level, as that is obviously the case of several myths of Sumerian or Persian origin, contained in the Bible (see the myth of Adam and Eve, etc.).

The Tokade (Irish Toicthech) or Fate, is the central or more exactly super pyramidal concept of druidism.

For the druids indeed, the Fate ; middle Welsh tynghed, Breton tonket, intended, old Irish tocad, fate, toicthech = “fortunatus “= tonquedec in Breton language (the labarum is its messenger ?) ; seems to be a higher principle. It is order and regularity, it is the law governing the unfolding of the physical universe. The Fate, it is therefore the purely impersonal order used as law for the worlds.

This single and unnamed Higher Being, infinite reality at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, of worlds, appears behind various facets or paraphrased denominations, differentiated according to the diversity of perceptions or functions.

But also in connection with the god-or-demons, i.e., all the entities who are supposed to enjoy a form of existence exceeding by far that of man, and who can intervene in this world. Physical cosmos and Man are also subjected to the law of Fate. As Ausonius said it very well in his time: “DIVINIS HUMANA LICET COMPONERE “(in his small poem in connection with the word “libra” = scales or balance). “We may compare things human with the divine.”

The world of God-or-demons too, according to this ancient design, therefore is also subjected to this law, just like each individual existence element forming the World. And the logical answer, in this case, can therefore be only the respect, the veneration, and the worship, even the supplication or the prayer according to the case.

Because the Fate (Tokade) can always become present and obvious in various forms, if necessary.

But a too spiritualized or disembodied faith in the Fate (sic) is not enough!

A related concept - another facet of this Fate or Tokad - is the Labaron, represented by St Patrick’s cross in Ireland, or the saint Andrew’s saltire in Scotland, Celtic equivalent of the Greek Logos : the word (or the “Verb “ of Fate).

Here ancient druidism had the same metaphysical thought process as Brahmanism. See the shruti (counter-lay) of Patanjali: “Anadinidhanam Brahma sabdatattvam yad aksaram; Vivartate 'rthabhavena prakriya jagato yatah “.

“The reality is that speech is the imperishable Brahman, without beginning or end; from him proceeds the physical universe,“.

For ancient druids, excellent psychologists also aware of group dynamics, the synergy of collective prayers was obviousness.

The metaphysical notion of supreme Fate, combined with the reconsidered religion that their druidism supported, therefore also went through ritual acts, gestures, attitudes. As well as through bodily, artistic, theatrical, poetic, forms of expression, through visible symbols also, and some rituals, in a way some sacraments.

To deny or to ignore as the paganism of the New Right wing does, the needs the popular religions meet, was never useful to somebody. Hypotrophy of ritual elements, drying out of rituals (of sacraments), disappearance of symbols and images, always involves a hyper intellectualization resulting in a loss of emotions, therefore a loss of meaning, therefore a shriveling of the whole community (Ollotouta). It is besides what happened to the neo-pagans of GRECE in Europe.

The myths had a certain social integration power and a considerable ability to create meaning, not only for religious interpretations of the world and for the art, but also for the individuation and the socialization of the human being.

Moreover today still, we always find ourselves in front of the need for a mediation making room to images and stories,in order to comprehend this increasingly complex world. It is enough to look a little into the always-expanding market for science fiction movies or of video games to realize that.

We are always unable to do without basic archetypal symbols, nor forms of expression comprising some accounts of mythological type, to structure our place in the world.

The Human being did not live only on argumentation, but also on stories, not only on concepts, but also on images resulting from the beginning of time ; Man needs images and stories, he can pass

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down from generation to generation. The fight against obscurantism does not mean necessarily depriving of images the language. It is what former druids had very well understood.

Enlightened by them, the Celtic myths and their inexhaustible fruitfulness therefore made innumerable Europans of this time able, to live themselves in a way, an experiment of the mysteries of the Deuos Parios (God Par) and therefore ultimately of the Big Whole (metamorphic melting or pantheistic communion with nature).

But Celtic myths are only one of the aspects of druidic religion. There are in a parallel way the mystical experiment and the philosophical improvement (the possibility as well as the reality of the freeing of the ignorant man by knowledge).

One of the aspects of the original druidism was…

- A doctrine of the blossoming of souls and of minds (cf.Hinduism moksha).

- In an open spirituality.

What shows us in an allegorical way these Celtic stories and legends, it is that the human being is a weak being, imperfect, always prey to doubt, tangled up in his passions (see the famous debility of the Ultonians, Ces Noinden Ulad) his original weakness. And subjected to the iron law of reincarnations into bacuceos (what a vicious circle!) Into bacuceos or into seibaros = ghost (Irish siabair/siabhradh) left straightly from the kingdom of Tethra or of Donn (Donnotegia).

One of the characteristics of druidism is that he also intends , like Buddhism besides, to reach the blossoming of the soul/mind (moksha in Hinduism) through enlightenment got by one’s own means (by the means of self-discipline and spiritual exercises). In other words, a new vision of the human being and of the world, without neglecting for as much liturgy, rituals (sacraments) and worship, for those who need some of them.

If one of the meanings of the teaching of shamanism was already individual aspirations to the blossoming of soul/minds (called moksha by the Hindus); the druids of mystical type too,since the fifth century before our era at least, propose for themselves a new goal; to become some guides heralding the access paths to the next world. With this intention, it is necessary for them to take it upon themselves to go the long and painful path traced in advance to become auentieticos (Welsh awenydd).

Salvation nevertheless must be accessible not only to some ascetics, but to the mass of men. The existence of innumerable anatiomaroi (semnothei in Greek) druidicist or Fenian ategnati, makes it possible all to collaborate in the work of the cycle in progress.

You can always also arrive at the blossoming Indians call moksha, either you are a man or a woman, learned or uncultivated, a druid or a lay person, by using another power that yours. For example, by being based on the force of Fate or Tokade. Through faith thus expressed in his destiny (even in certain cases on only one occasion), and in his messenger (the labarum) the human being can reach the other world of Vindo-Magos or Sedodumnon. And there to arrive at the melting/fusion with one’s destiny at the end of a certain time. Or at the melting/fusion in the Deuos Parios (become the Grail later during the Middle Ages): in other words a door or a bar of scale to rise even higher. Where the forms of representation and thought of our human existence, fleeting and conditioned, are no longer applicable; no more than the alternative of the existence or non-existence.

In front of opposites of which it did not know which to eliminate surely, druidism always sought to perceive their supplementary as well to arrange them in a higher synthesis. New perceptions should not always lead to jettison former beliefs, but to only add new truths to the previous ones. If not there is consequently, like in the case of Judeo-Islamic-Christianity, risks of contracting for the intellectual horizon, or for the awareness. Druidism was therefore always inclusive and non-exclusive.And particularly like the Indian monotheism of the Bhagavad-Gita type.

The Bhagavad-Gita maintains too, like Bible or Quran, better even, that the being of beings is alone of its species:

“ You are the father of this complete cosmic manifestation, the worshipable chief, the spiritual master. No one is equal to You, nor can anyone be one with You. Within the three worlds, You are immeasurable (11,43) ”.

The Sanskrit expression is almost word for word the same one as the Quranic expression: “He is God, the One and Only ” (Quran 112.4). Nevertheless the Bhagavad-Gita just like druidism does not draw from this assertion the same conclusions as the Judeo-Islamic-Christianism, namely

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1) that the denomination the qualifier or the appellation God (deivos) can be granted to no other entity but the higher being.

2) that no worship can be paid legitimately and validly to another than it, in its place.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, the word which designates the gods (deva) also applies to the being of beings, which is simply the adideva (10.12), the “Urgott,” the primordial god, of whom all the others are manifestations, the worship which is paid to them is therefore paid to him. See above.

The relationship between the being of beings and the gods is therefore not a relationship of competition or exclusion and jealousy, but a relationship of inclusion. We are there in the presence of two different mental worlds: the human beings which are spiritually Semitic (Pius XI ), the human beings which are spiritually Indo-Europeans.

Druidism therefore, just like Buddhism, never completely eliminated the hypothesis of the existence of cosmic-human forces called gods or demons.

One of the key notions of ancient druidism was the idea that certain god-or-demons could more than others, to help in removing the obstacles which bar the way of salvation for the majority of men or women; unable to withdraw from the world in order to devote themselves to spiritual exercises as do the aristocrats of the religious facts do. Through reincarnation on another earth, characterized by peace or harmony, whatever its name (Vindomagos, etc).

Belin/Belen/Barinthus is for example a Celtic god of harmony, a Buddha, but viewed and described by populations of warlike disposition, a little like Muhammad among the first Muslims. His buddhakshetra is called Tir tairngire or Mag Mell by Irishmen.

Buddhakshetra, land of Buddha or field of Buddha, is a notion which designates a field of the universe in which a given Buddha develops his activity or his influence. According to the Mahavamsa, the field of his earthly life is the jatikkheta, which can be impure or mixed, as our world which is the jatikkheta of the Shakyamuni Buddha. The field in which his teaching stretches is the anakkheta. The field in which his wisdom and his knowledge stretch is the visayakkhetta, considered as unlimited. The last two are pure lands resulting from his achievements and expressing his qualities; those who have affinities for them reappear in them. Always according to the Mahavamsa, a Buddhakshetra is equivalent to 61 billion universes. The concept is particularly developed in the Mahayana, in the Lotus sutra and in the Vimalakirti sutra as in these which are devoted to certain Buddhas like Amitabha, whose pure land is best known by far. It is indeed in the center of the beliefs and practices of the current of the pure land , one of most important of Buddhism.

Although some texts describe pure lands as fields distant from our world, the Lotus and the Vimalakirti maintain they appear in the impure world itself, around a Bodhisattva, through the purity of his mind; they are made up of the beings who rise spiritually thanks to his teaching. According to these sutras, it exists a difference in quality between the pure lands of the various Buddhas. The pure land of Amitabha himself gives way, according to some authors, to that of another Buddha. The currents Tiantai and Tendai, strongly influenced by the Lotus Sutra, consider four lands that man reaches according to his level of awareness.

Below some pure land names.

Land of Bliss (Sukhavati) of the Amitabha Buddha, the best known, described in the Pure land sutras, it would be located to the west of our world.

Land of Pleasure (Abhirati) of the Akshobhya Buddha located to the east of our world.

Emerald land of the Bhaisajyaguru Buddha; described in the Sutra Bhaisajyaguru, it would be located to the east of our world.

Land of secret Solemnity of the Vairocana Buddha described in the Mitsugon sutra.

Pure land of the Vulture Peak, where reign the teaching of the Shakyamuni Buddha;

Pure land of Potakala Mount of the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.

Let us dream a little! A little poetry now in this world of brutes. In these conditions why not a pure land (Celtic hereafter) of the Horrnunnos Buddha? In short, another world in which the soul/mind of the

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common man himself can get ready peacefully to the melting/fusion with the universal light (of the deuos Parios, become Grail during the Middle Ages). Last stage before the final take-off of the soul towards the infinite one of the Big Whole (Pariollon for the high-knowers of the druidiaction, Parinirvana among Buddhists), higher and further still, within the billion stars. END OF OUR DREAM.

Surprisingly democratic religious revolution therefore, that this concept of land of peace or of happiness (Vindomagos Meldomagos) overflowing of passion but without suffering, to see on this subject the admirable description of it made by the Gaelic legends entitled “the voyage of Bran son of Febal, the adventures of Condle the fair son of Conn; where the soul/minds of dead can become mature, without obstacles. Without obstacles and freed from any risk of reincarnation on earth, into “bacuceos “or “seibaros “ in the worst of the cases; just before arriving at the melting/fusion with the divine light proceeding from the cosmic cauldron (become Grail during the Middle Ages as we said it); and to enter thus definitively or almost in the Absolute transcendent Immanent or almost (the Big Whole).

But the solidity of a chain is only that of its weakest link. The very whole mankind is interdependent in this cosmic process and this cycle will therefore be achieved only when all our species can benefit from this cosmic process. In this respect it is therefore more useful obviously, to voluntarily come back here below to help all the living beings (men and animals) that it is in a form or another (God-or-demon, earthly druid, etc.).

The general characteristic of this spirituality, religion, or mysticism, was therefore a positive new attitude, regarding the world and the nature, the human being and the life in the world.

There are four circles or levels in druidism.

The first level which corresponds to the way of good works is the path on which everyone can go. It is the external aspect of the ollotouta (of the worshiping Celtic community), the aspect connecting it to uninitiated persons, even to non-Celts. It is the fourth function of the overcome people (atectai) or of the poorest part of the third Indo-European function, that of the producers of wealth.

The 2nd circle or level therefore is the conversion of the one who learns from Druidic School. It is reserved for true hearted or true minded Celts. The faithful one must therefore have shown before the seriousness of one’s involvement , and he is admitted to the first consecration (ordination as vate, velede or gutuater/gutumater) then to the other rituals,only after a scrupulous examination carried out by his master. The follower or the initiate chooses then a druidic name and places oneself under the patronage of a deity (if he agrees with its concept of course).

The 3rd circle or level consequently is the Cuchulinian druidic « yoga » of Fenians, very important, of course, in a primarily warlike society , and in which any man was potentially a warrior. The druidicist here steps forwards, moreover. From the ritual, external form, and from the reflection, he proceeds to the mental exercises which bring him closer to the complete union with his Destiny.

The 4th circle or level finally is the higher stage of druidism. It is a stage very different of that of the path of the good works, because what characterizes it is rather the sovereign nature of the choices of the Fate (of the Tokad/Tocade). The majority of Druidic Schools also admit indeed, the possibility of arriving at the state of awenydd (auentieticos) through an immediate and sudden enlightenment, as in a flash cast by Taran/Toran/Tuireann, at the end of several years of personal quest for the grail or reflection. A flash of inspiration which puts on the right path, which makes it possible to definitively escape the illusions of the duality of Judeo-Islamic-Christian type (God and Devil, soul and matter, Good and Evil, etc.) Because everything is relative here on earth.

Differences between the things are transitory and relative. Highest of knowledge therefore consists in experimenting this non-duality or the unity of opposites.

The god-or-demons appear then to the druidicist and he performs the union with his personal Grail i.e., the union with the bubbling energy of his Destiny.

Above the blossoming of the force of the soul/mind through mental exercises, the possibility of the liberation by enlightenment or wisdom in the middle of the even current life, exists therefore.

The reflection leading to these flashes of inspiration can be the meditation of one of the basic triads of druidism, like that reported by Diogenes Laertius : “to reverence the gods, to abstain from wrongdoing, and to be a man, a true one.”

The major topic of druidism, it is not the possibility of a blossoming through acts or works, but the possibility of such a blossoming for the soul/minds of auentieticos type (Welsh awenydd). And

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consequently the possibility of the victory over the relativity of the world and of the anamone, therefore over the suffering.

The individual non-existence of the anamone is transcended in the unity or the totality of a plenitude which includes human beings and nature, a plenitude which does not exceed what is human, but achieves it according to its most thorough dimension.

What is typical of dialectical druidism also, it is its progressive shift starting from the originally mythical model, which has nothing similar in the cosmogonic myths of the Vedas; even if the word veda is the word which produced druid in Celtic language (dru-uids). The powers of nature thus will be demythified little by little.

“And you druids… to you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know “(Lucan. Pharsalia. Book I).

That is obvious in the Celtic medicine, which passed from a medicine of entirely magic type, to the beginning of a scientific medicine (wooden anatomic votive offerings to represent bodies, found at the springs of the Rocks in Chamalieres, use of medicinal plants, thermal springs, prowess of the Romano-British oculists, etc.).

In the Celtic tradition, the arrival of the god-or-demons meant a first victory over the powers of chaos, symbolized on the Continent by the mythical gigantic anguipedics (Fomoriians in Irish language, Andernas on the Continent). The god-or-demons of Celts will become thus more and more, by a long process of development and exchanges, some also operational god-or-demons for all the other peoples. That they are the German peoples (who borrowed much from the Celts) or even the Romans (our great Queen Epona for example, etc.)

We can therefore maintain about the primordial druids:

- that Europeans of the first millennium before our era were right to listen to them;

- that by doing this they rose on an unprecedented religious level (compared for example with the Jewish traditional monolatry, especially directed towards the here on earth)

- that they all received from primordial druids boundless inspiration, courage, and force, for a fresh religious start: they set off towards more truth as well as towards a more thorough knowledge.

The Celtic word which designates the ultimate objective of the druidic way of salvation (through Grace Christians would say, by a sovereign decision of Fate the druids would say rather) means, “instantaneous blossoming of the soul or inspiration “. Hence the words awen and awenydd in Welsh language. It implies suspension of pain, desire, hatred, illusions.

Gerald of Cambria, who gave us in the 12th century a description of Wales, speaks in his chapter 16 about a category of characters designated by the name of awenyddion or inspired men. Awen is the name of the inspiration Muse and awenydd the one who is inspired, or the poet, according to him.

There are certain persons in Cambria, whom you will find nowhere else, called Awenddyon, or people inspired; when consulted upon any doubtful event, they roar out violently, are rendered beside themselves, and become, as it were, possessed by a spirit. They do not deliver the answer to what is required in a connected manner; but the person who skillfully observes them will find, after many preambles, and many nugatory and incoherent, though ornamented speeches, the desired explanation : they are then roused from their ecstasy, as from a deep sleep, and, as it were, by violence compelled to return to their proper senses. After having answered the questions, they do not recover till violently shaken by other people; nor can they remember the replies they have given. If consulted a second or third time upon the same point, they will make use of expressions totally different; perhaps they speak by means of fanatic and ignorant spirits. These gifts are usually conferred upon them in dreams…but during their prophecies they invoke the true and living God, and the Holy Trinity » (phew! our good monk had to think deep down in his heart).

Awenydd’s state is therefore not something which you could experiment only after death, like the heaven of Islamic-Christians or the Vindomagos of the second Celtic function. You experience the state of awenydd since the moment when you reach the stage when everything is without grief, without sorrow, without death, without any sickness, without debility (the voyage of Bran son of Febal) when there is neither death nor venial sin nor mortal sin. Peace reigns among us without strife (the adventures of Condle the fair son of Conn).

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Our brethren in paganism in the Far East go even further since, for them (just like for certain Christians of Celtic origin, we will return to them ) even the pleasant feelings disappear and we arrive even at the end of opposites, contrary things, oxymorons.

Neither solidity, neither fluidity, neither heat, neither movement, neither sun, nor the moon, have their place. This state which is called neither to come, neither to leave, neither to stand , neither to die, neither to be born, where there is neither base, neither development, it is that the state of awenydd, according them. This state of the being it is in fact a diving in the Big Whole (Pariollon among Celts, Nirvana in Far East). This Big Whole is a definitive liberation, of any ageing, any suffering, any death and any misery, as well as of any punishing reincarnation into “bacuceos “ by ignorance or lack of curiosity. Into bacuceos or seibaros = ghost (Irish siabair/siabhradh) left straight of the kingdom of Tethra or Donn (Donnotegia).

Christians and atheists concluded from it that the Pariollon or druidic Big Whole, called Parinirvana by Buddhists, was especially negative. The Big Whole of druidic Pariollon in reality appears as annihilation only for the one who does not know. For the one who knows (I think therefore I am, but also I think that I am), it is only the radically different sphere of absolute peace.

But in the case of the state of awenydd, body and intelligence of the one who is arrived at this stage, will still remain, until the moment of their final physical disintegration.

Now the anatiomaros or awenydd would like to end this existence he could do it, but the majority patiently await the end fixed by nature. Anatiomaroi and awenyddion await their last hour, conscious and with a vigilant mind.

When he died , the anatiomaros or the awenydd exceeds the state of ultimate annihilation from which there is no longer possible rebirth. Through the bubbling energy of the “cosmic cauldron “it is the final flight towards stars and galaxies, the disappearance within the Big Whole.

The fundamental meaning of the state of auentieticos (Welsh awenydd), we saw it, is that of a metamorphic melting/fusion with the light of stars. A last stage therefore, without suffering, covetousness, hatred nor blindness (Vindomagos and Sedodumnon joined together = Vindobitus or Albiobitus). Does this second to last state of being be understood negatively, like a total annihilation of the individual soul/mind, called anamon, or positively like the conservation in a form or another of the aforementioned individual anaon?

The various Druidic Schools could never agree on this point.

The spiritual event which is the state of auentieticos (Welsh awenydd) is traveling then participation within Sedodumnon or Albiobitos (pleroma in the writing of St Irenaeus) in the energy of the cosmic cauldron. By virtue of their proximity to this condensed supreme Fate, joined together Vindomagos and Sedodumnon form therefore in reality a metaphysical place or “being “. The Sedodumnon or Albiobitus, pleroma under the hand of St Irenaeus of Lugdunum, is an immanent transcendent, escaping all the conditions of the phenomenal existence, a place without death, not become, not caused.

In short the other bank of the ford, indescribable in the last resort, whatever the access conditions, another dimension, the true reality, the only true world.

This eternal life in the bubbling energy “of the Grail “in the Vindomagos or Sedodumnon is a state we are unable to imagine. In this eternal life will, desire, feeling, go out, but only insofar as all this is imperfection.

Even if some Schools evoke while speaking about eternal life or immortal soul, a kind of survival of the individuality of anaon fluttering like a butterfly “around the light of the Grail “; they do not remain less fully aware that their assertions about this eternal life of individual souls (anaon) are only images the aim of which is to circumscribe the non-representable one. And that the soul-being called anamone, within the cosmic cauldron, beyond space and time, escapes all the limitations of the finiteness. Some druids speak besides in this case of metamorphization of anamon. As a water drop is lost in the Ocean while depositing its salt in it, anamon is lost into the Vindobitos while approaching the center of the cosmic cauldron.

Still about awenyddion. The synthesis of real life or of aisling (of vision) and of reflection, worked out by druids, brings, of course, information; but also produced a change of awareness which opens up on new dimensions of perception and knowledge. The experiment shows that the (daily) lived feeling of distance between the subject himself and object, can be exceeded.

First “technique “ most general and most philosophical.

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The scientific research of the causes and of the principles which preside over the life of our physical universe, thus making it possible to come at the existential recognition of the difference between matter and soul. It is a question of discovering the physical components of the matter and the laws which make it live.

The philosophical research. It is a question of grasping the laws of thought, to recognize the possibilities as well as the traps of the deductive and inductive argumentation, to refine the concepts of category and logic. In a word to learn the mortals how to use the reason which will give them access to the knowledge of supreme truth and therefore of Tokad (of Fate). The Greek Eleans have done very strong in this field (the traps of the reasoning).

The research on the traditional rituals and the mental exercises, particularly as regards their effectiveness.

Such knowledge is already a blossoming since it makes the 2nd technique possible.

The purpose of Celtic martial arts (Celtic yoga of riastrade < rixtiostrictio > type, drill of Fenian type or other, etc.) is, like the famous Buddhist monk Bodhidarma inventor of kung fu wanted at the other end of the Indo-European world, to train people to self-control and focus. In order to overcome in this way all obstacles of body origin, met by the mind and to make our hidden faculties, able to unfold themselves.

The goal of this self-blossoming by practical or theoretical knowledge is therefore the liberation from ignorance, through the knowledge of the single true reality; as well as the liberation from the vicious circle of rebirth into “bacuceos “or “seibaros “. By a direct union with the repository of the supreme Fate that is Pariollon or cosmic cauldron.

To say of the Tokad it is the friend of men, it is, of course, to use anthropomorphism (animals are not aware to have a destiny) in order to evoke the solidarity of the supreme Fate with the destiny of all the men including those who suffer, who are lowered, humiliated, scorned, given up even in their death (example Setanta Cuchulainn in Ireland).

In other words, in our human weakness a force is at work, in our very powerlessness another power appears. What is negative in this world can be changed in an infinitely positive one.

And it is there what precisely makes possible to already live, in spite of suffering, the liberation of suffering. Once again to see the example of the Hesus Cuchulainn. The suffering is not a pure data without meaning. The suffering, even apparently meaningless, is not less heavy with an including meaning. A meaning which, of course, will shine in all its brightness only in the future of the plenary achievement of this world (frashokereti in Avesta) , when every suffering, every evil, every death, will be transcended in the very middle of the world. At the time of erdathe (after the comeback of the Savior called Saoshyant the Zoroastrians will say, after the return of the Holy Grail it will be said in the Middle Ages) which then will appear, in the depth and the intimacy of Man.

A question arises now. Is it possible that before this end of the world or erdathe (followed by a rebirth of the aforementioned world, in that, druidism differs radically from Judeo-Islamic-Christianity), programed, there is a more glorious period and giving thus in a way to men of good a kind of advance taste of the future state of being called Celtic heaven? A little like a remission before death?

In Iran this period of remission before erdathe or end of the time having to last thousand years, was indeed combined with the come back of the Saoshyant. Saoshyant is the name of the Messiah or supreme savior in ancient Persian mythology. His advent will mark the arrival of the last days and of the Frashokereti (the final revival). It is sometimes said that the Saoshyant will be born of a virgin who will be impregnated with the seed of Zoroaster while she bathes in a lake.

The beginning of the fourth and last age, which includes the current time, saw the appearance of the great religious reformer who was Zoroaster and it will see the advent of the savior Messiah called Saoshyant. Saoshyant will come to renew the world and resuscitate the dead. During this final revival, Mankind will be subjected to a burning torrent, which will clean it of its faults or of its vices and will make it able to live in the company of Ahura Mazda. For all those who will have lived without reproach, this burning torrent will not make more effect than warm “milk “. The Saoshyant will sacrifice a bull and will mix its grease with the magic elixir called haoma, to create an immortality beverage he will give then to each member of mankind.

At the junction of policy and religion and because of a remote Indo-European influence, we find the same idea in the Shia world. Shia watch for the come back of the Mahdi, i.e., of the hidden imam.

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For other people, this period of remission before Erdathe or end of times having to last thousand years, was combined with the come back of the god-or-demons, and therefore involved that the whole Mankind becomes… like gods.

NB. These eternal battles of the Celtic other world produced Ragnarok in Germanic mythology (Poetic Edda).

In Great Britain this period of remission before erdathe or end of a world having to last a thousand years was combined with the come back of the king called Arthur. A king hidden or in dormition since the disastrous battle of Camlann. Arthur is the very type of the war leader, wise and especially chosen by the god-or-demons. His convalescence place is the Island of Apples or Fortunate Isle (Insula Pomorum quae Fortunata vocatur). It is a kind of earthly Paradise, abode of fruitfulness but also of longevity, controlled by nine sisters, whose elder one, Queen Morgain or Morgan, is a magician who knows the secrets of the art to cure. The name of” Island of Apples “ seems more a translation of the word of Celtic origin Avallach or Avalon which means “Apple orchard “ than of the Latin term pomorum. According to other Welsh, English and even Italian traditions, the stay of Arthur would have been an untraceable cave where he slept, surrounded by his last valiant knights, thus escaping the attention of the living.

In Portugal this period of remission before Erdathe or end of times having to last a thousand years was combined with the come back of King Sebastian I (Don Sebastião). He was a young, unmarried king (he felt reluctant with the marriage) and without descent. The character is particular, according to the points of view he is either admired, or hated; one sees in him a Messiah, or a clumsy person (it is a euphemism). Not astonishing, we are nevertheless faced with him with a young adult, endowed with poor health. He will ascend the throne in 1568, when he was fourteen years old.

No one does know with certainty what his body became, but what is certain it is that the people refused this disappearance.

Then he enters the legend and since has various nicknames: O Adormecido (the asleep, the king in dormition) or O Encomberto the Secret [king). Various legends show him to us, still expected, and imagine him coming back at the head of the nation in order to give back to Portugal its former glory and power. Some texts even specify to us that it will be done on a day of fog.

Sebastianism is therefore a messianic movement combining culture, history and spirituality. More precisely, Sebastianism is the continuation of a Portuguese Messianism which had existed already for several centuries; and located at the junction of three historical broad outlines: the Judeo-Christian Messianic tradition borrowed from Persians; the Millenarianist theories of the Cistercian monk Joachim of Fiore; and lastly the knighthood accounts of the Celtic myths dealing with the Breton King Arthur. In the Portuguese nobility (as in others besides), the tradition of the chivalric romances remained indeed a long time.

In France it is the great monarch. The prophecies about him start to spread approximately at the same time as that of the king of Bretons called Arthur. The medieval time was indeed particularly fertile in false prophets. In addition to the predictions ascribed to Merlin the enchanter, there were also other false prophets, whose vaticinations were all in harmony; they announced the coming of a Great Monarch of the Messianic type (Welsh Cadwaladr), coming to save the world (Wales) from destruction. The prophecy drawn from the Mirabilis Liber and ascribed to Caesarius of Arles, in agreement with most of the prophecies about the Great Monarch, announces for the end of time, the coming of this messianic prince; whereas elsewhere, as we could see it, the coming of the Great Monarch is viewed in the most various forms.

There exists not many commentators speaking clearly about the Great Monarch who, more than one character, is the incarnation of a superhuman eschatological function. Eric Muraise, however, ventures himself there, even if he means to give to his description a connotation worthy of science fiction literature. The Great Monarch is a forgotten Capetian prince, named Henry, born in Blois and living in the island of Ireland (well?) He appears at the time when Europe, shaken by very serious internal disorders, undergoes the simultaneous or concerted invasion of troops coming from the East of Elbe and from North Africa. A true scenario of science fiction. Muraise extrapolates starting from a large number of prophecies and of public predictions. For a historian, this French author maintains, the question is not to know if prophecies are believable, nor if the comparison of these prophecies with realities are legitimate, but to consider their suggestive potential over masses.

Some authors think that "the prophecy of the Great Monarch “ never existed. By inserting this topic into prophecy, one makes the Great Monarch appear as a new founder of the monarchy, who brings back his people to original youth, in illo tempore Mircea Eliade would say. But, surreptitiously, they proceed then to a shift from the topic of the lost king to that of the hidden immortal king. Of course, the

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Great Monarch is not Arthur transported by the fairies in Avalon Island, nor Frederick Barbarossa sleeping under the mountain; watching throughout the centuries, waiting for the need from their people. This role is transposed to his concealed lineage. But what is certain it is this prophetic framework is based on powerful principles of mythical account : the lost king, the blessed island, the king of the world, the cataclysm followed by the return to the Golden age; present in the Westerner imaginary world for thousands years.

In Germany, this period of remission before Erdathe or end of the world having to last thousand years, was combined with the come back of the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. From the 9th century to the 15th and more particularly starting from the 12th century, the legend of the sleeping emperor: Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa or Frederick II according to the time or the mood of storytellers, had developed indeed in Germany. And it was obviously a Germanic transposition of the myth of the lost king […] The emperor Frederick did not die. He sleeps in a cave in the mountains of Thuringia, seating in front of a stone table, while his beard goes already several times around the table foot. Sometimes, he stands up to ask: “Do the ravens fly still around the mountain? “And the shepherd who takes care of him answers, “Yes! “ sadly. The emperor resumes his age-old dream then, while waiting for the day when he will bring Germany to the head of the other peoples.

In Bohemia, in a cave […] King Wenceslaus II rested, died in 1305, a wise and powerful prince who had joined together under his government Bohemia , Poland and Hungary. In a mountain of Montenegro, the king of Serbia Marko (1371-1394) waited who, although already subjected to the Ottoman supervision, represented for the following generations a vague memory of medieval freedoms. The sword of King Marko was inserted up to the hilt in a rock; this king of Serbia would come back when the rock would be so worn by time that the sword would be released from itself. Let us note the obvious correspondences with Excalibur, the sword of Arthur.

Even the three founders of the first alliance of the original Swiss cantons in 1291 were considered to sleep under the Rütli meadow, where they had sworn their oath, at the edge of the Lake of Uri.

Specialists detect in all these legends the characteristic features of a true “complex of Penelope “: a hope in the come back of a beloved monarch too early disappeared, a preserving falling asleep in a remote or protected place, an inevitable and definitive triumph. This political millenarianism seems to result from the secularization of the Parousiac millenarianism. All the more so as the custom assigns to the “sleeping savior “ that he was to wake up when his country would need him. Britain, Bohemia, Serbia or Germany endangered would call the missing king. These historical or archetypal sovereigns, escaped the thrall of death, either in order to come back one day to testify for the enlightenment of other generations, or for finally reaching the eternal life. Their sleep was a long and protected stage, which preserved their virtualities, which reserved their merits for a greater achievement. They waited thus a privileged moment of the future when their awakening would then come to fill with wonder, teach or help, the witnesses of this wonder.

It is therefore not surprising to meet the figure of the “sleeping king “in many European traditions, because the kings who, in an extraordinary sleep, continued to take care of their people, offered a consolation to collective misfortunes; they constituted a hidden hope, an ultimate help, a pledge of eternity which repurchased the uncertainties and the difficulties of the day.

Basically, the topic of the lost king or of the concealed king symbolizes the sacred substance of kingship, in opposition to its worldly achievements. It carries out the archetypal regeneration of the royal function. Its temporary concealing withdraws him from wear, from the solvent forces which move away his lineage from the ideal model.

Among Celts this millenarianist idea was preserved only by the Bretons and the Arthurian cycle.

Then is this a heresy, a local particularism, or the ultimate echo of an older pan-Celtic druidic myth? A heresy or a recollection?? It is up to each one to see.

The religious message of druidism has been mainly handed down to us in a mythical and legendary coating. Druidic philosophy dates back to a time when the mythical thought was still familiar to men.

The current heirs of the scientific side of druidism regard today Nature and History as a continuum having its own laws.

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As the science of their time was yet only stammering, ancient druids, too, explained the events by interventions of the supranatural or preternatural powers in the course of Nature and of History.

It is known today that these interventions are only exceptions to the general rules of functioning of Nature.

To believe in Taran/Torann/Tuireann then means simply to believe in the strength and the effective power of the soul/mind in the Man and in the World.

About druidism we should beware of the stereotype: “Jews have a historical thought, Celts a mythological thought.”

Everything is not anti-historic myth in druidic religion. Many data of the Celtic religious tradition have a historical base. See the case of the Hesus Mars or Cuchulainn and of other divinized heroes of this kind.

Conversely, Bible too, use myths: Sumerian myths of the creation and of the end of the world, of the earthly paradise and of the original fall, of the universal flood, etc. until the episode of the tower of Babel.

Regarding the story of Adam and Eve, specialist agree for example to see; in the prohibition made by Yahweh, of touching the fruits of the tree of knowledge, and of immortality; a distant echo of Sumerian mythology. Which indeed clearly excludes men from immortality to reserve it (jealously enough) for the only god-or-demons.

There are also mythical motifs in the First as well as in the Second Isaiah.

With Lug we are faced with a meta-historical figure analog to the Indian Krishna. Even if we can date it or locate it only in a very approximate way, in relation to the famous battle of the plain of the standing stones or of the mounds (Cath Maigh Tured in Gaelic language) during proto-historic time; and even if various currents of tradition amalgamated with this figure (the currents of prehistoric shamanist tradition for example).

It also applies to the accounts about Crixus and Mariccus which, in spite of all their legendary coatings (the exegetes will think of the “miracles “having been previous the killing of Mariccus, etc.) intend speaking of unique historical events. Of a history which occurred really, here on earth, and which is therefore verifiable by historical sciences, therefore of facts. That is of the highest importance for men like us, marked by the sciences of nature, the technology, and the history.

The Celtic tradition of the human revolt of the Fir Bolg against the god-or-demons (see the defeat of the TD in the war for the Talantio/Tailtiu, personification of the farmed countryside matching the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Rosemartha, of Continental people); perhaps encouraged the great expedition of the Galatian warriors in the year 279 before our era. The accounts to read about Brennus Achichorius Leonorius Lutorius and all the others, more than biographies, necessarily incomplete, form a message, a teaching, an education, a pedagogy. See on this subject the words of Brennus about gods.

The Celtic tradition of the human revolt against the god-or-demons (see the defeat of the TD in the war for the Talantio/Tailtiu, personification of the cultivated countryside matching the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Rosemartha, of Continental people); perhaps also encouraged the great revolt of gladiators in the year 73 before our era. Since its core was made of Celtic-Germanic elements having some leaders all bearing Celtic names: Crixus, Oenomaus, Castus, Gannicus.

The accounts to read about Crixus and Mariccus, more than their necessarily incomplete, biographies, form a message, a teaching, an education, a pedagogy. Crixus and Mariccus who overcame lived and suffered under the reign of Rome, in a well-defined country, in a well-defined time.

For the one who is interested in Brennus and sees in him the standard of his behavior with respect to the gods, it is not indifferent this Brennus is a historical figure, a legend or a myth.

For the one who is interested in Mariccus and sees in him the standard of his behavior, it is not indifferent this Mariccus is a historical figure, a legend or a myth. For the one who is interested in Crixus, it is not indifferent that he acted as a leader, a monk soldier or a social and national revolutionist. That he was on the side of the rich persons and of the powerful ones or on the side of the poor and oppressed people [just like in the case of the Hesus Mars or Cuchulainn besides]. That he preached the self-defense or the absolute non-violence of ahimsa type. That he was perhaps or

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not betrayed (sold) by other gladiators andabatas or murmillos like him. That he deserved or not to be crucified with 2 or with 6000 of his companions along the Via Appia ...

Crixus has perhaps escaped a crueler death if he was surprised and was killed still badly awoke but the weapons in his hand. One does not know either with certainty how Castus, Gannicus and Oinomauos died. Undoubtedly crucified too in order of Crassus.

At all events, all deserve well and even still today, an affectionate thought.

Mariccus is also a historical figure; an authentic man, an insurrectionist spurred on by a truly revolutionary mind and inspired, gone into an attempt where he risked his life knowingly. Just like Crixus besides.

They left the reign of the ephemerality to enter a world which is known as being better, the Uindomagos. Called Teres Biuontion = land of the Living by Gaelic people at the Western ends of Celtica (cf Tir Na mBeo of their Irish descendants).

The Uindobitucos Crixus, the Uindobitucos Mariccos, and so many anonymous persons with them… For them no supernatural intervention of a God-or-Demiurge of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or ex-machina, but a natural admission through death in a final state without suffering, a state of bliss in a way; the state of Uindobitucos sought by any self-respecting fighter or activist.

In this meaning, there is also for the druidicists, starting from the Uindobitucos Crixus or from the Uindobitucos Mariccus, as of now, in the middle of this life, a beginning of salvation. A blossoming of the soul/mind like the phenomenon called moksha in India, the liberation of any slavery. In short, a liberation theology before this concept is invented. A spirituality of Muhammadan type. What the Christians the intellectuals and the Western media cannot understand (they do Christianity without Christ even when they are atheistic, an extremely rare non-conformism) but that true Muslims will understand, of course.

But let us leave here History and let us return to Mythology.

The history of each cycle is not a linear development in the direction of a continual rise (progress) or in that of a continual descent (decline); but a dialectical movement , going, of course, through crises, breaks, and disasters, but also meaningful , coherent, focused on a finality. The definitive achievement that the current druids designate with the name of come back of erdathe (come back of the Holy Grail during the Middle Ages), after the big bad wolf of the famous Unelli coin (a quarter of a stater?) has finished swallowing the sun,new skies and new earth, emerged of water and verdurous . Themselves possible starting point of a new long life (of a new cycle) according to certain druids.

But there is nevertheless room in such cycles for decisive interventions of the Fate. The avatar of the Tokad in the Hesus Mars or Cuchulainn, who pointed out to men the good news of the Suscetlon (eternal hell does not exist and purgatory either) is a restoring and refounding example of this former order, of those forgotten times, and in this field even if there is nothing new under the sun, there is nothing newer than what has been forgotten.

Let us note here the incredible blindness of Christianity and Islam, of which Qurans insist much on this Hell, refusing both what, however, should go without saying, in view of some of their own basic dogmas.

- For Christians: “God so much loved the world that he gave his only son… “

- For Muslims: “Illahi rahmani er rahim “= “ God is merciful and forgiving… “.

As we could see it, the Tokad was revealed many times. But the Hesus Mars or Cuchulainn, despite all the incredible marvelous embellishing him due to the veledae, is a meta-historical figure being based most probably on the historicity of an exemplary character. He was therefore an authentic human being, “ro fir “(ro, an intensive adverb, fir = male person in the Gaelic language). At the same time as was embodied in him, according to the, druidic, belief, of the time, the very symbol of fate.

According to an idea taken over as of the 19th century by d’Arbois de Jubainville, our hero would have been a warrior from the Continent, Gaul or Galicia, came with one of the waves of conquering migrants landing on the Isle of Ireland. His name Setanta - late Gaelic form - would be explained by a former * Sentons = “walking on “ word for word: “the itinerant “. There would have been there too, a pun on the ethnic name Setantios had by Breton clans (Setantioi: current Lancashire).

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What current druidism endeavors to find again from former druidism as regards religious practice or mysticism, it is:

1. Some forms of meditation, songs, body positions, gestures, ornaments, and other liturgical elements.

2. The association of nature (trees, light, sunrise or sunset) with worship.

3. The ritual recitation and the personal meditation of triads and of sacred myths which we have just seen: insofar as these legends show the transition of Mankind to the immanent and transcendent dimension of the Tokad (of the Fate).

It is not a multitude of outdated laws that neo-druidism proclaims, but a series of simple, transparent, liberating, calls, giving up the facility of the dominant ideology spread by journalists or intellectuals (some Christianity without Christ) , but giving on the contrary some examples or signs of a renewed life.

How is it necessary to understand one’s destiny, how to recognize it, how to know what is its true will, what to do in order to follow it? In short on what Man does base his life? The druidic reasoning opens infinite prospects, but also gives reference marks to be directed.

For as much, let us reaffirm it once again, in druidism there is by no means requirement of an unconditional obedience to the god-or-demons.

All the more not a stupidly criminal obedience like in the case of Abraham, alas, current in his time, ready to sacrifice his son, or like that of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians obeying priests as far as making their sons burning in sacrifice to “Moloch “.

Don’t forget on the contrary the symbol of the last meta-historical battle of the Plain of standing stones or of mounds, where they are the men who made the gods or demons move back, just like the Hesus Cuchulainn did also, in certain circumstances, with the Tuatha De Dannan and Brennus in Delphi (at least in the beginning).

There can be only conditional obedience, negotiated, discussed, in short an agreement after negotiations. New form of obedience to the god-or-demons therefore , not according to the letter, but according to the spirit. Neo-druids do not proclaim a new law including all the fields of life. Unlike Judaism or Islam, they do not determine in detail what hygienic rules are to be observed, how to eat, have a wash, to protect themselves from diseases, etc. De minimis not curat druis. We broach there the crucial point of any pagan dialog, freedom.

Not a new man starting from scratch but a new man starting from the best of the former one.

The service of the superman who is in us must prevail over the dictatorship of the ambient conformism. The revolutionary slogan in the Crixus or Mariccus way, even more so in Hesus way, must be the (super) humanity, not the soft conformism. For such is the will of the Fate or Tokad (middle Welsh tynghed, Breton tonket, intended, old Irish tocad, destiny, toicthech "fortunatus", tonquedec in Breton, the labarum is its messenger).

Torah, Bible, or Quran, have to answer the only criterion that is worthwhile. Are they at the service of the superman who is in us, yes or no? Jews, Christians and Muslims, must distinguish in their religion between what is right and what is not. Between what is true and what is not. Between what bears the mark of its time and what is immortal. Between what is vital and what is accessory. Between what is constructive and what is deleterious. It is also necessary to distinguish between ethics and morality, between morality and legality, between immutable ethical constants and modifiable legal provisions, between spirit and letter.

N.B. Put in the feminine if the masculine or the neutral is not suitable, fate is then said Tocade.

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AFTERWORD IN THE WAY OF JOHN TOLAND.

Pseudo-druids with fabulous initiatory derivation (the famous and indescribable or hilarious perennial tradition) having multiplied since some time; it appeared us necessary to put at the disposal of each and everyone, these few notes, hastily written, one evening of November, in order to give our readers the desire to know more about true druidism.

This work claims to be honest but in no way neutral. It was given itself for an aim to defend or clear the cluto (fame) of this admirable ancient religion.

Nothing replaces personal meditation, including about obscure or incomprehensible lays strewing these books, and which have been inserted intentionally, in order to force you to reflect, to find your own way. These books are not dogmas to be followed blindly and literally. As you know, we must beware as it was the plague, of the letter. The letter kills, only spirit vivifies.

Nothing replaces either personal experience, and it’s by following the way that we find the way. Therefore rely only on your own strength in this Search for the Grail. What matters is the attitude to be adopted in life and not the details of the dogma. Druidism is less important than druidiaction (John-P. MARTIN).

These few leaves scribbled in a hurry are nevertheless in no way THE BOOKS TO READ ON THIS MATTER, they are only a faint gleam of them.

The only druidic library worthy of the name is not in fact composed of only 12 (or 27) books, but of several hundred books.

The few booklets forming this mini-library are not themselves an increase of knowledge on the subject, and are only some handbooks intended for the schoolchildren of druidism.

These simplified summaries intended for the elementary courses of druidism will be replaced by courses of a somewhat higher level, for those who really want to study it in a more relevant way.

This small library is consequently a first attempt to adapt (intended for young adults) the various reflections about the druidic knowledge and truth, to which the last results of the new secularism, positive and open-minded, worldwide, being established, have led.

Unlike Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which swarm, concerning the higher Being, with childish anthropomorphism taken literally (fundamentalism known as integrism in the Catholic world); our druidism too, on the other hand, will use only very little of them, and will stick in this field, to the absolute minimum.

But in order to talk about God or the Devil we shall be quite also obliged to use a basic language, and therefore a more or less important amount of this anthropomorphism. Or then it would be necessary to completely give up discussing it.

This first shelf of our future library consecrated to the subject, aims to show precisely the harmonious authenticity of the neo-druidic will and knowledge. To show at which point its current major theses have deep roots because the reflection about Mythologies, it’s our Bible to us. The adaptations of this brief talk required by the differences of culture, age, spiritual maturity, social status, etc. will be to do with the concerned druids (veledae and others?)

Note, however. Important! What these few notes, hastily thrown on paper during a too short life, are not (higgledy-piggledy).

A divine revelation. A (still also divine) law. A (non-religious or secular) law. A (scientific) law. A dogma. An order.

What I search most to share is a state of mind, nothing more. As our old master had very well said one day : "OUR CIVILIZATION HAS NO CHOICE: IT WILL BE CELTISM OR IT WILL BE DEATH” (Peter Lance).

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What these few notes, hastily thrown on paper during a too short life, are.

Some dream. An adventure. A journey. An escape. A revolt cry against the moral and physical ugliness of this society. An attempt to reach the universal by starting from the individual. A challenge. An obstacle fecund to overcome . An incentive to think. A guide for action. A map. A plan. A compass. A pole star or morning star up there in the mountain. A fire overnight in a glade?

What the man who had collected the core of this library, Peter DeLaCrau, is not.

- A god.

- A half god.

- A quarter of God.

- A saint.

- A philosopher (recognized, official, and authorized or licensed, as those who talk a lot in television. Except, of course, by taking the word in its original meaning, which is that of amateur searching wisdom and knowledge.

What he is: a man, and nothing of what is human therefore is unknown to him. Peter DeLaCrau has no superhuman or exceptional power. Nothing of what he said wrote or did could have timeless value. At the best he hopes that his extreme clearness about our society and its dominant ideology (see its official philosophers, its journalists, its mass media and the politically correct of its right-thinking people, at least about what is considered to be the main thing); as well his non-conformism, and his outspokenness, combined with a solid contrariness (which also earned to him for that matter a lot of troubles or affronts); can be useful.

The present small library for beginners “contains the dose of humanity required by the current state of civilization” (Henry Lizeray). However it’s only a gathering of materials waiting for the ad hoc architect or mason.

A whole series of booklets increasing our knowledge of these basic elements will be published soon. This different presentation of the druidic knowledge will preserve nevertheless the unity as well as the harmony which can exist between these various statements of the same philosophical and well-considered paganism : spirituality worthy of our day, spirituality for our days.

Case of translations into foreign languages (Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, etc.)

The misspellings, the grammatical mistakes, the inadequacies of style, as well as in the writing of the proper nouns perhaps and, of course, the Gallicisms due to forty years of life in France, may be corrected. Any other improvement of the text may also be brought if necessary (by adding, deleting, or changing, details); Peter DeLaCrau having always regretted not being able to reach perfection in this field.

But on condition that neither alteration nor betrayal, in a way or another, is brought to the thought of the author of this reasoned compilation. Every illustration without a caption can be changed. New illustrations can be brought.

But illustrations having a caption must be only improved (by the substitution of a good photograph to a bad sketch, for example?)

It goes without saying that the coordinator of this rapid and summary reasoned compilation , Peter DeLaCrau, does not maintain to have invented (or discovered) himself, all what is previous; that he does not claim in any way that it is the result of his personal researches (on the ground or in libraries).

What s previous is indeed essentially resulting from the excellent works or websites referenced in bibliography and whose direct consultation is strongly recommended.

We will never insist enough on our will not be the men of one book (the Book), but from at least twelve, like Ireland’s Fenians, for obvious reasons of open-mindedness, truth being our only religion.

Once again, let us repeat; the coordinator of the writing down of these few notes hastily thrown on paper, by no means claims to have spent his life in the dust of libraries; or in the field, in the mud of the rescue archaeology excavations; in order to unearth unpublished pieces of evidence about the past of Ireland (or of Wales or of East Indies or of China).

THEREFORE PETER DELACRAU DOES NOT WANT TO BE CONSIDERED, IN ANY WAY, AS THE AUTHOR OF THE FOREGOING TEXTS.

HE TRIES BY NO MEANS TO ASCRIBE HIMSELF THE CREDIT OF THEM. He is only the editor or the compiler of them. They are, for the most part, documents broadcast on the web, with a few exceptions.

ON THE OTHER HAND, HE DEMANDS ALL THEIR FAULTS AND ALL THEIR INSUFFICIENCIES.

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Peter DeLaCrau claims only one thing, the mistakes, errors, or various imperfections, of this book. He alone is to be blamed in this case. But he trusts his contemporaries (human nature being what it is) for vigorously pointing out to him.

Note found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau and inserted by them into this place.

By respect for Mankind , in order to save time, and not to make it waste time, I will make easier the work of those who make absolutely a point of being on the right side of the fence while fighting (heroically of course) in order to save the world of my claws (my ideas or my inclinations, my tendencies).

To these courageous and implacable detractors, of whom the profundity of reflection worthy of that of a marquis of Vauvenargues equals only the extent of the general knowledge, worthy of Pico della Mirandola I say…

Now take a sheet of paper, a word processing if you prefer, put by order of importance 20 characteristics which seem to you most serious, most odious, most hateful, in the history of Mankind, since the prehistoric men and Nebuchadnezzar, according to you….AND CONSIDER THAT I AM THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF YOU BECAUSE I HAVE THEM ALL!

Scapegoats are always needed! A heretic in the Middle Ages, a witch in Salem in the 17th century, a racist in the 20th century, an alien lizard in the 21st century, I am the man you will like to hate in order to feel a better person (a smart and nice person).

I am, as you will and in the order of importance you want: an atheist, a satanist, a stupid person, with Down’s syndrome, brutish, homosexual, deviant, homophobic, communist, Nazi, sexist, a philatelist, a pathological liar, robber, smug, psychopath, a falsely modest monster of hubris, and what do I still know, it is up to you to see according to the current fashion.

Here, I cannot better do (in helping you to save the world).

[Unlike my despisers who are all good persons, the salt of the earth, i.e., young or modern and dynamic, courageous, positive, kind, intelligent, educated, or at least who know; showing much hindsight in their thoroughgoing meditation on the trends of History; and on the moral or ethical level: generous, altruistic, but poor of course (it is their only vice) because giving all to others; moreover deeply respectful of the will of God and of the Constitution …

As for me I am a stiff old reactionary, sheepish, disconnected from his time, paranoid, schizophrenic, incoherent, capricious, never satisfied, a villain, stupid, having never studied or at least being unaware of everything about the subject in question; accustomed to rash judgments based on prejudices without any reflection; selfish and wealthy; a fiend of the Devil, inherently Nazi-Bolshevist or Stalinist-Hitlerian. Hitlerian Trotskyist they said when I was young. In short a psychopathic murderer as soon as the breakfast… what enables me therefore to think what I want, my critics also besides, and to try to make everybody know it even no-one in particular].

Signed: the coordinator of the works, Peter DeLaCrau known as Hesunertus, a researcher in druidism.

A man to whom nothing human was foreign. An unemployed worker, post office worker, divorcee, homeless person, vagrant, taxpayer, citizen, and a cuckolded elector... In short one of the 9 billion human beings having been in transit aboard this spaceship therefore. Born on planet Earth, January 13, 1952.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BROAD OUTLINES

As regards the bibliography of details see appendix of the last lesson because, as Henry Lizeray says it so well, traditions that must be interpreted. It is there the whole difference which exists between

former druidism and neo-druidism.

-Lebar Gabala or The Book of Invasions. Paris 1884 (William O'Dwyer)

-Base of the druidic Church. The restored druidism. Henry Lizeray, Paris, 1885.

-National traditions rediscovered. Paris 1892.

-Aesus or the secret doctrines of the druids. Paris 1902.

-Ogmius or Orpheus. Paris 1903.

CONTENTS.

Prolog Page 005

Life and death of the beautiful and unhappy Etanna/Etain. Followed by few other stories

according to the Irish apocryphal manuscripts. Page 008

Introduction Page 009

The Cycle of Etanna Page 013

Apocryphal text No1. The nurture of the house of the two milk pails. Altrom tige da medar. Page 014

Apocryphal text No. 2. Here begins the wooing of Etanna Page 016

The wooing of Etanna this again version II Page 017

Return to the wooing of Etanna version I. Page 025

The nurture of the house of the two milk pails again. Page 026

Here return to the wooing of Etanna, version I Page 028

Below again the wooing of Etanna version I. Page 031

Wooing of Etanna again . Page 044

The wooing of Etanna version I Page 048

The wooing of Etanna/Etain again version III. Page 049

The wooing of Etanna version I. Page 050

The wooing of Etanna/Etain again version III. Page 051

The dream of Mabon/Maponos/Oengus Page 061

Below again the wooing of Etanna. Page 065

The nurture of the house of the two milk pails again. Page 070

Epilog Page 083

The madness of Suibhne Page 087

The legend of Mongan Page 096

The voyage of Bran, son of Febal Page 117

The adventures of Condle the comely,son of Conn the hundred fighter. Page 121

Various stories concerning the power of the litmus tests, adventures of Cormac

in the land of promise and Cormac’s decision about the sword. Page 127

The adventures of Nera Page 142

The supernatural being’s frenzy. Page 146

The midnight court Page 148

Welsh literature Page 150

The black Book of Carmarthen. Yr Afallenau Page 151

Appendix : First attempt of synthesis on the druidic spirituality. Page 154

Afterword in the manner John Toland Page 170

Bibliography of the broad outlines Page 173

BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

1 Quotations from the ancient authors speaking about Celts or druids.

2. Various preliminary general information about Celts.

3. History of the pact with gods volume 1.

174

4. Druidism Bible: history of the pact with gods volume 2.

5. History of the peace with gods volume 3.

6. History of the peace with gods volume 4.

7. History of the peace with gods volume 5.

8. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 1.

9. Irish apocryphal texts.

10. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 2.

11. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 3.

12. The hundred paths of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 1 (druidic mythology).

13. The hundred paths of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 2 (druidic mythology).

14. The hundred ways of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 3 (druidic mythology).

15. The Greater Camminus: elements of druidic theology: volume 1.

16. The Greater Camminus: elements of druidic theology: volume 2.

17. The druidic pleroma: angels jinns or demons volume 1.

18. The druidic pleroma angels jinns or demons volume 2

19. Mystagogy or sacred theater of ancients Celts.

20. Celtic poems.

21. The genius of the Celtic paganism volume 1.

22. The Roland’s complex .

23. At the base of the lantern of the dead.

24. The secrets of the old druid of the Menapian forest.

25. The genius of Celtic paganism volume 2 (liberty reciprocity simplicity).

26. Rhetoric : the treason of intellectuals.

27. Small dictionary of druidic theology volume 1.

28. From the ancient philosophers to the Irish druid.

29. Judaism Christianity and Islam: first part.

30. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 1.

31. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 2.

32. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 3.

33. Third part volume 1: what is Islam? Short historical review of the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

34. Third part volume 2: What is Islam? First approaches to the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

35. Third part volume 3: What is Islam? The true 5 pillars of the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

36. Third part volume 4: What is Islam? Sounding the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

37. Couiro anmenion or small dictionary of druidic theology volume 2.

175

Peter DeLaCrau. Born on January 13, 1952, in St. Louis (Missouri) from a family of woodsmen or Canadian trappers who had left Prairie du Rocher (or Fort de Chartres in Illinois) in 1765. Peter DeLaCrau is therefore born the same year as the Howard Hawks movie entitled “the Big Sky.” Consequently father of French origin, mother of Irish origin: half-Irish, half- French. Married to Mary-Helen ROBERTS on March 12, 1988, in Paris-Aubervilliers (French department of Seine-Saint-Denis). Hence three children. John Wolf born May 11, 1989. Alex born April 10, 1990. Millicent born August 31, 1993. Deceased on September 28, 2012, in La Rochelle (France).

Peter DELACRAU is not a philosopher by profession, except taking this term in its original meaning of amateur searching wisdom and knowledge. And he is neither a god neither a demigod nor the messenger of any god or demigod (and certainly not a messiah).

But he has become in a few years one of the most lucid and of the most critical observers of the French neo-druidic or neo-pagan world.

He was also some time assistant treasurer of a rather traditionalist French druidic group of which he could get archives and texts or publications.

But his constant criticism both domestic and foreign French policy, and his political positions (at the end of his life he had become an admirer of Howard Zinn Paul Krugman Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore); had earned him, moreover, some vexations on behalf of the French authorities which did everything, including in his professional or private life, in the last years of his life, to silence him.

Peter DeLaCrau has apparently completely missed the return to the home land of his distant ancestors.

It is true unfortunately that France today is no longer the France of Versailles or of Lafayette or even of Napoleon (who has really been a great nation in those days).

Peter DeLaCrau having spent most of his life (the last one) in France, of which he became one of the best specialists, even one of the rare thoroughgoing observers of the contemporary French society quite simply; his three children, John-Wolf, Alex and Millicent (of Cuers: French Riviera) pray his readers to excuse the countless misspellings or grammatical errors that pepper his writings. At the end of his life, Peter DeLaCrau mixed a little both languages (English but also French).

Those were therefore the notes found on the hard disk of the computer of our father, or in his papers.

Our father has certainly left us a considerable work, nobody will say otherwise, but some of the words frequently coming from his pen, now and then are not always very clear. After many consultations between us, at any rate, above what we have been able to understand from them.

Signed: the three children of Peter DeLaCrau: John-Wolf, Alex and Millicent. Of Cuers.